At 45 and divorced, you would expect Karen Marley to devote her time to looking after her children or tending the garden.

But Ms Marley wants to live it up.

She got divorced 11 years ago but has zipped back into the dating scene - and vowed that she will date only married men.

Why? They are better in bed and they are better trained, she said in an interview with The Mirror.

She also doesn't have to fear that her partner will stray because she isn't sticking to one.

The self-confessed serial mistress claims she has had affairs with 50 married men over the past six years.

Said Ms Marley: "They (the married men) have had all their rough edges sanded off by their wives and know how to behave around a lady. And married men are better in bed."

Why isn't she targeting single men? She said she has learnt over the years that a man in his 40s is single for a reason - either he has no social etiquette whatsoever or he's a player looking for his next affair.

Recalling a date she had with a single man, she said: "A single guy I was on a date with licked his plate in a restaurant. A married man would never do that because his wife would knock his head off his shoulders."

Ms Marley is among the growing number of women targeting married men, Daily Mail reported. She has signed up for illicitencounters.com, a dating site for married people.

Women can join for free but men are charged 134 pounds (S$265) a month to find a mistress, having consciously made a decision to have an affair.

Ms Marley's justification for trysts is that she is merely "borrowing" husbands, not stealing them. She admitted that she has been confronted by angry wives, but insists that she was merely friends with the men and stopped seeing them immediately.

She said she doesn't understand why she should feel guilty about her affairs because the men who join the website have made a decision to have affairs too.

Experts feel that such websites are popular because many unhappily married couples simply cannot afford to get divorced in the current economic climate.

She added: "I know married life isn't for me. But I know that married men have the qualities I am looking for."

This article was first published in The New Paper.