[Mage]

If you read the article, you learn that the husband was also taking a break from the marriage and seeing another woman.

So maybe he was smart and it was his strategy - to pretend to let the aged wife loose and go slut mode, so that he could exchange her for a younger woman. And then to make her think that it was "her idea".

Since there are no children involved and everybody is satisfied, I think was is a good plan.