After 14 years of marriage, singer Shania Twain and her music producer husband Robert John “Mutt” Lange are separating.  A spokesperson for the couple has confirmed the split.  They have one child, a six year old son named Eja.  Twain and Lange were married in December 1993, six months after they first met.  Unlike many celebrity couples, they have successfully stayed out of the media spotlight.

In 2000, the couple left North America behind and set up their permanent household in Switzerland.  The couple also reportedly has homes in New York and in New Zealand.  It is unclear where exactly the divorce will occur.  If the Swiss divorce courts hear the case, Twain and Lange will either have to agree to the divorce and all custody, support and property issues or they may have to wait for two years before the divorce is granted. 

Switzerland allows no-fault divorces but requires the two year waiting period during which time the couple must live apart.  The waiting period can be waived if the filing spouse can prove in court that the marriage is irretrievably broken.  In New Zealand, there is a similar two year waiting period - but it cannot be shortened for any reason, even by agreement of the divorcing spouses.

The waiting period in New York would be a little shorter.  New York allows no-fault divorces only where the parties have lived separately for at least one year. At-fault grounds include adultery, cruelty, abandonment for more than a year or imprisonment of one of the parties for more than three years.

Twain, an award-winning and best-selling singer, is originally from Canada; Lange was born and raised in Rhodesia (now Zambia) and South Africa but lived most of his adult life in England.  Lange has produced records for AC/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Bryan Adams and Loverboy as well as for Twain.  He is famously private - he hasn’t given an interview in years - and the couple’s representative has indicated that there will be no additional statements regarding the split.

Actress Anne Heche claims in court documents that she cannot afford to pay the nearly $15,000-a-month in child support and spousal support she is currently obligated to pay to ex-husband Coleman Laffoon because she is now unemployed. Heche most recently starred in the television series Men In Trees, which was cancelled. Heche has asked the court for a modification of her support obligations going forward.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge suspended Heche’s $14,798 per month support obligation for the month of July, pending a hearing on the matter. The judge also ordered Heche to file updated income and expense disclosures with the court before the next hearing.

Heche claims that she is seeking new work but has no offers and is fearful that the looming Screen Actors Guild strike will put her at a further financial disadvantage.

In a court declaration in support of the requested modification, Heche claimed that she has less than $35,000 in assets and can no longer afford to pay the monthly support, along with private school tuition for their 6-year-old son Homer, the mortgage on her house in Canada where Men In Trees filmed, rent on her Los Angeles home and car and personal expenses. She also noted that she has approximately $364,000 in outstanding debt, resulting largely from the bitter divorce and custody battle with Laffoon.

Child support is almost always modifiable if the parent seeking the modification can prove a substantial change in circumstances which would make the original support amount unreasonable. Certainly, the loss of a job could meet the criteria of a substantial change in circumstances. The court, however, is unlikely to reduce Heche’s support obligation to zero due to her current unemployment. She has a history of regular acting work - including very recent, regular work - therefore, the court will likely impute or assign an income level which would be equal to some historical average of Heche’s wages. The imputed income level would then be used to calculate a reasonable amount of child support. Courts use this imputation method as a dis-incentive for parents to quit their jobs as a means to avoid paying child support.

Heche and Laffoon were married in 2001, shortly after Heche split from her long-term girlfriend, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres. The divorcing couple has only one child, Homer. They split in early 2007 amidst reports that Heche was having an affair with her Men in Trees co-star James Tupper.

The divorce has been pending now for over a year without final resolution. As we noted in a November 2007 post about this case, the couple has battled viciously and publicly over both custody and property. Interestingly, the judge in Heche and Laffoon’s case appointed the same custody evaluator as in the Britney Spears-Kevin Federline custody battle. Heche is represented by the Jaffe & Clemens law firm. Laffoon is represented by Freid & Goldsman.

At a hearing on Tuesday, pop star Britney Spears was reportedly granted additional visitation with her young sons, Sean Preston Federline and Jayden James Federline. TMZ.com reports that she will now have three days of supervised visitation every week with the boys. She was apparently getting one day of supervised visitation weekly since being discharged from inpatient psychiatric care earlier this year. A formal custody evaluation was submitted to the court and attorneys last week and was reportedly had both positive and negative things to say about the pop singer as a parent. Reports indicate that she is not yet allowed to keep her sons for overnight visits but that the plan is to slowly increase the time she spends with the boys over time. The goal apparently is to restore the 50/50 physical custody arrangement that she previously had with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

It is important to note that Federline retains all legal custody of the boys at this point. Spears has only visitation. She is currently under the conservatorship of her father Jamie Spears and has been since her hospitalization. Jamie Spears has legal control of his daughter’s personal and financial affairs at least until a July hearing in that case. It is not surprising then that Commissioner Scott Gordon in the custody case has not restored any legal custody rights to Spears - seeing as she has been deemed by the probate court to be unfit to handle her own affairs at this time.

Still, the visitation plan indicates that Commissioner Gordon and the Federline camp are pleased with Spears’ mental health progress and her father’s supervision. It is generally a family court’s goal to keep parents and children together and to facilitate meaningful familial relationships. It appears that the court in this case has a specific plan on how to accomplish that for the Spears-Federline family. Federline’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan indicated that the ex-couple had “mostly” agreed on the revised visitation plan and that he was cautiously optimistic about moving forward with the new, graduated plan.

A current governor in the western half of the U.S. and an ex-governor in the eastern half both find themselves in the midst of dicey divorces this week. In Nevada, sitting governor Jim Gibbons filed for divorce from his wife of 22 years, Dawn Gibbons. In New Jersey, ex-governor Jim McGreevey’s bitter divorce from estranged wife Dina Matos McGreevey finally made it to trial this week.

Jim and Dawn Gibbons - Nevada

Gibbons filed for divorce last Friday in Carson City, NV and asked the court today to seal the divorce file. Nevada law allows a divorce case to be sealed, making its contents private, at the request of either spouse. Only the original petition and the final judgment will be considered public record. Interestingly, Gibbons’ petition apparently seeks a court order requiring his wife to pay his attorney’s fees. The petition cited incompatibility as grounds for the divorce and asked that the couple’s community property be distributed according to state law. Nevada is a community property state, which will require that the marital property be divided equally between the spouses.

Gibbons served five terms in the U.S. Congress before being elected governor of Nevada in 2006. He reportedly moved out of the governor’s mansion a while ago and his wife has been living there. The divorce petition also seeks to have her removed from the mansion. Dawn Gibbons claims that she has no idea why her husband is divorcing her and says that he has cut off all communication with her. The couple has a 20 year old son, who is attending the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York. Under Nevada law, he is considered emancipated and, therefore, no child support or custody orders will be necessary.

Gibbons was the subject of sexual assault allegations brought by a Las Vegas cocktail waitress in 2006 while running for governor. No charges were ever filed. He was also investigated by a federal grand jury over allegedly taking bribes in exchange for assistance in the award of federal contracts while he was a Congressman. Again, no charges have been filed.

James and Dina McGreevey - New Jersey

As reported in our previous post on the McGreeveys, this one has been spectacularly bitter. Starting with the scandalous revelation that James McGreevey was gay and having an affair with a male staffer, the McGreevey divorce has been made for the headlines. The couple has seemingly done nothing to keep their story out of the papers, continuing to fight for years after they split. The biggest arguments have been over their six year old daughter Jacqueline and over the money Dina McGreevey believes she is owed for the time she lost in the governor’s mansion due to her husband’s resignation.

The case finally went to trial this week. The case has been divided into three parts for trial. The first part - custody - is closed to the public. The second and third portions - regarding alimony and Dina McGreevey’s fraud claim against the ex-governor - will be open. Reports out of New Jersey late today indicate that the couple may, in fact, finally be engaging in meaningful settlement discussions though. Tomorrow’s court session is not scheduled to begin until the afternoon so that the parties can continue their negotiations. It is unclear whether the parties are using a mediator or if they are merely negotiating between attorneys.

UPDATE:  The McGreeveys apparently settled their custody issues on Thursday afternoon, May 8.  They declined to make the details of that settlement public.  The financial issues remain unresolved and set for trial.

Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal, NJ.com

After three and a half years of marriage, television host Star Jones has filed for divorce from husband Al Reynolds. Jones actually filed almost a month ago in New York Superior Court in Manhattan, but the filing was sealed and not discovered by the media until this week. The case is apparently “uncontested”, suggesting that Reynolds does not dispute the need for divorce. Reynolds has hired high-profile New York divorce attorney Stanford Lotwin, who previously represented Donald Trump, Geraldo Rivera and Howard Stern. The name of Jones’ attorney has not yet been reported.

Jones and Reynolds were married in a highly criticized, lavish wedding in New York City in November 2004. At the time, Jones was a co-host on the television talk show The View and courted corporate sponsors and freebies for the nuptials. Almost immediately, gossip columnists and bloggers began speculating about Reynolds’ sexuality and reporting an imminent split. In July, 2006, it was reported that Reynolds was spotted at Lotwin’s offices in Manhattan - a charge which both denied at the time. (Quite a coincidence that Reynolds would hire Lotwin now but claimed the meeting reports were false back in 2006!) The couple has no children.

It is unknown whether the couple signed a prenuptial agreement before their marriage. New York is not a community property state. Instead, property is handled by equitable distribution. In the absence of a prenuptial agreement or a settlement agreement, a judge will divide the marital property in a fair and just manner. Because the court records have been sealed, we don’t yet know if the divorce has been sought on no-fault grounds or on at-fault grounds. New York allows no-fault divorces only where the parties have lived separately for at least one year. At-fault grounds include adultery, cruelty, abandonment for more than a year or imprisonment of one of the parties for more than three years. Reynolds is possibly living in Florida which may indicate that no-fault divorce is a possibility here.

Although Jones couldn’t stop talking about her wedding and relationship four years ago, she now predictably requests the media give her privacy during the divorce process. Reynolds’ spokesperson claimed that his client would “take the high road” in the divorce. Time will tell.

Sources: etonline, People.com

University of Arizona men’s basketball coach Lute Olson’s five month divorce battle is getting uglier. It was reported today that Olson has been ordered to appear in the Pima County, Arizona court on May 7th to explain why he transferred money from a joint account into his individual account one day after he filed for divorce from wife Christine Olson in December. Both husband and wife were apparently prohibited from withdrawing or transferring funds pending resolution of the divorce case. The transfer was reportedly made because athletic shoe and apparel maker Nike deposited Olson’s endorsement money directly into the joint account. Olson earns a reported $500,000 a year from Nike in addition to his university salary. Arizona is a community property state, which means that all marital assets are divided equally between both spouses. Non-marital or separate assets are generally awarded to the original owner of the property (and not split between the spouses).

The Olson divorce has been fairly public and high-profile, especially in Arizona. The couple’s attorneys are regularly quoted in the newspapers. They have argued over the scheduling of depositions and the subpoenaing of financial records. Olson is also challenging the validity of a postnuptial agreement (the media keeps mistakenly referring to it as a “prenuptial agreement“) the couple signed on an airplane on their way to Mexico for a honeymoon, two days after they were married. Christine Olson’s lawyer claims that the agreement merely reserves each spouse’s separate assets as their own. Lute Olson’s attorney argues that certain pages of the agreement were not signed or initialed, that Christine refused to provide Lute with a copy of the agreement and that Christine did not fully disclose her financial resources to Lute before they signed the agreement. Christine is CEO of an oil and gas contract drilling company in Pennsylvania - an enterprise which has been in her family for several generations. She is also a member of the Republican National Committee.

Lute and Christine Olson were married in 2003, two years after Olson’s first wife Bobbi passed away. Olson and Bobbi were married for 47 years. Olson took a leave of absence from coaching in late 2007 and, very shortly thereafter, filed for divorce. Christine Olson initially objected to the divorce and asked the court to order the couple into counseling through a legal process called conciliation. Almost immediately, both parties agreed that counseling was futile and moved forward with the divorce. The case is expected to be tried later this year.

Sources: SI.com, The Tucson Citizen

After almost two and a half years, the divorce of actors David Hasselhoff and Pamela Bach is final. The pair married in 1989 and separated at the end of 2005. They were granted a divorce in August 2006 but the court bifurcated or divided the case and reserved custody, property and support issues for a later date. Hasselhoff and Bach battled publicly over custody of their two teenage daughters, tossing allegations of alcohol and drug abuse at each other. Custody of the kids was resolved last August and now, apparently, the support and property distribution matters have been settled as well.

The judgment entered by the Los Angeles Superior Court this week indicates that the couple signed a prenuptial agreement before their 1989 wedding but that, rather than fight in court over the validity of the agreement, Hasselhoff and Bach reached an agreement to resolve their financial issues. California is a community property state which would result in a 50/50 split of all marital assets. It is unclear if this is what happened in the Hasselhoff divorce or not - but it probably comes pretty close. It does appear that they were each awarded 50% of the interest in their marital home, which will be listed for sale. They divided their household items and likely split their marital bank accounts. Bach was awarded 50% of Hasselhoff’s retirement accounts and pensions, which will be divided by a Qualified Domestic Relations Order or QDRO. Bach was also awarded half of the future earnings from Hasselhoff’s memoirs and a few other projects.

Hasselhoff retained the rights to all of his various professional acting and singing endeavors - including rights to the phrases “The Hoff”, “Malibu Dave” and “Don’t Hassle the Hoff.” He will pay his ex-wife $1,000,000 to equalize the division of their marital assets. Hasselhoff also agreed to pay Bach $21,000 per month in spousal support until either of them dies or she remarries. Hasselhoff will pay $4,000 per month in child support (this amount will be reduced to $2,500 when the older daughter turns 18 and presumably graduates from high school next month) and will pay for the private high school tuition of each child. The couple shares joint physical custody of the girls as well as joint legal custody.

Hasselhoff was represented by attorneys Melvin Goldsman and Marci Levine of the Freid and Goldsman firm. Bach went through about five different attorneys or law firms over the course of the litigation.

After Pamela Anderson’s latest split from Paris Hilton-sex-tape-star Rick Salomon, I started seeing her name pop up again in all of the celebrity gossip blogs, linked to several different new men. All I could think was “stop the madness!” This, of course, is the woman who has been married three times (longest marriage - three years) and engaged several other times. The whole thing got me wondering about the shortest celebrity marriages on record. I think we’ve come up with a pretty comprehensive list of the quickest unions and separations in Hollywood history. Here ya go:

• Robert Evans and Catherine Oxenberg - he was old (68) and she was not (36); they split after 12 days of marriage
• Ali Landry and Mario Lopez - this acting couple dated for six years and separated after two weeks of marriage
• Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds -they dated after Murphy broke up with Scary Spice, then married on an island in the Pacific on New Year’s Day; they acknowledged that the marriage wasn’t legal and planned to have a legal ceremony in L.A.; it never happened, they split two weeks later
• R. Kelly and the late Aaliyah - the singers were married for less than three months before the union was annulled due to Aaliyah’s age (15)
• Janet Jackson and James DeBarge - the young Miss Jackson was secretly married to DeBarge for four months
  
• Nicky Hilton and Todd Meister - married in Vegas, this marriage was annulled after four months
• Charlie Sheen and Donna Peele - this lasted four months; Sheen has married and divorced since and is now engaged again
• Colin Farrell and Amelia Warner - these two co-starred in a movie and were married for four months
• Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney - an odd couple, this marriage was annulled after four months

Oh yeah, there’s more… Continue reading "The Shortest Celebrity Marriages Ever"

New York Giants defensive end - and recent Super Bowl champion - Michael Strahan’s attorneys were back in court this week, battling Strahan’s ex-wife Jean and her lawyers. Last year, a New Jersey judge awarded Jean Strahan over $15 million in their divorce plus an additional $18,000 per month in child support. The judgment was stayed or suspended pending an appeal. This week, the New Jersey appeals court heard arguments from both sides as to why the lower court’s decision was or wasn’t appropriate. The Strahans filed for divorce in March 2005. It quickly became ugly when Jean made public accusations of adultery and physical abuse by her husband. The couple married in 1999 and have young twin daughters. They signed a premarital agreement (also called a prenuptial agreement) which gave Jean 50% of all marital assets (estimated at $22 million) and 20% of Strahan’s income each year they were married in the event of a divorce. Strahan was apparently allowed under the agreement to designate what was and wasn’t a joint marital asset - as long as he set aside 20% of his annual income for his wife. Strahan turned pro in 1992 and presumably also had substantial separate or premarital assets.

During the divorce, Strahan argued that he was not obligated to pay Jean the 20% of his income because she did not ask for it each year of their marriage. His lawyers also argued that he earned so much money which he allowed to be designated as joint assets that her share matched or exceeded the 20% set aside provision. The lower court judge did not agree with Strahan’s interpretation of the agreement and ordered him to pay $14 million plus interest (almost 70% of the marital property) as well as child support.

Strahan’s attorneys argued to the appeals court that the lower court’s decision penalized Strahan for not setting aside that 20% during the marriage and ended up awarding Jean far more than she ever would have received otherwise. At least one appellate judge reportedly asked Jean’s attorney why it was appropriate to punish Strahan rather than make an equitable distribution of assets.

The Strahan prenuptial agreement is unusual (and has been resoundingly criticized) because it seems to give the non-earning spouse substantially more than she would otherwise receive pursuant to divorce law and because it allowed one spouse to designate what property was “joint”. New Jersey, where the Strahans lived, is an equitable distribution state - marital assets are supposed to be divided in a fair and just manner, which could be a 50/50 split but doesn’t have to be. It is possible that the 20% clause in the contract was supposed to take the place of spousal support or alimony. Even in that light, it is a very strange provision. And one that is now causing Strahan a lot of grief.

The appeals court is not expected to make a quick decision in the case due to the sheer volume of the official record of the case, which must be reviewed.

Sources: The Star-Ledger, New York Post

Tennis star Chris Evert was on the Oprah show today, showing off her engagement ring from fiance/golf great Greg Norman. The two were engaged last year. The talk show appearance sparked a little curiosity about the status of Norman’s divorce from Laura Andrassy Norman, his wife of 25 years. I checked it out and, boy, Mrs. Norman is not going quietly.

Very shortly after Norman announced that he and Laura were divorcing, back in May 2006, he was seen out with Evert. Evert was still married to her husband of 18 years, Andy Mill, at the time. Evert and Mill divorced in December 2006, with Evert reportedly paying Mill $7 million in the settlement. The couple has three teenage sons. The Normans have two grown children. The Normans and the Evert-Mills were reportedly very close friends for many years, even taking trips together.

The Norman divorce, filed in Florida where the couple lived the majority of the time, was filed in June 2006 on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. Things got nasty when Laura’s lawyers threatened to force Evert to testify. Norman’s attorneys then requested that Norman be awarded the majority of the estimated $300 to $500 million marital estate because he was the only party responsible for his enormous golf winnings and related endorsement deals. In the summer of 2007, the Normans reportedly settled the divorce, with Laura receiving somewhere between $100 million and $150 million in assets. That settlement was never fully finalized due to a disagreement on who would pay a tax liability on the couple’s jets. (Laura argues that taxes due on the potential money made from the sale of the jets should be paid by Norman because he was awarded the jets in the settlement. Norman’s position seems to be that the tax debt should be divided as a marital liability because of some tax filing details.)

Florida is considered an “equitable distribution” state when it comes to property distribution in a divorce. The court is supposed to divide the marital property in a fair and just manner, taking into account all of the circumstances of the marriage and the divorce. Adultery can be considered in making an equitable distribution in most “no-fault divorce” states. It is somewhat unusual though for adultery to cause a major imbalance in the distribution unless it can be shown that the cheating spouse wasted marital assets on the affair.

A judge signed the Normans’ divorce decree in September 2007, but allowed a few issues to remain unresolved - including the tax question. (This procedure is called bifurcation. See our March 24th post on Johnny Knoxville’s divorce for more information on bifurcation.) Laura’s lawyers then sought to depose Evert regarding private trips she took in the Norman jets. The judge denied that request. Norman has now filed suit against Laura for breaching a confidentiality agreement that was part of their divorce settlement by talking in interviews about their marriage and about Evert. That suit as well as the remaining divorce issues are still pending.

Sources: New York Post, New Zealand Herald, Vero Beach Press-Journal