Marsha Garces Williams, wife of actor/comedian Robin Williams, filed a petition for divorce last week in San Francisco. The couple has been married since 1989. They met while Garces Williams worked as a nanny for Williams’ oldest son. She then worked as Williams’ personal assistant. Shortly after Williams divorced his first wife, he and Garces Williams were married. Garces Williams and Williams have two children, Zelda, born in 1989 and Cody, born in 1991.

While the extent of the Williams’ marital property is unknown, Garces Williams will likely receive a large property distribution. The divorce is filed in California, which is a community property state, and Garces Williams’ petition cited irreconcilable differences as the grounds for divorce. This indicates that she is pursuing a no-fault divorce. In such situations, the marital property will be divided equally between the husband and the wife. Presumably, after a 19 year marriage, Garces Williams will also receive spousal support - either in regular payments or in a lump sum.

The parties’ children are teenagers, which may make the custody and child support determination fairly simple. In California, child support must be paid until the child becomes 18, unless the child has not graduated from high school, in which case the support payments continue until the child has graduated high school or turns 19, whichever occurs first. Parents can agree, however, that child support will continue into the child’s college years. Zelda, the older child, is almost 19. Cody is 16 years old (he’ll be 17 this fall). Child support was not requested for Zelda, an indication that she has already graduated from high school. Support for Cody will be fairly short-term. As far as custody goes, Cody is old enough to voice his own opinion on the matter if his parents are unable to agree on an arrangement. Often, visitation schedules for teenagers are relatively flexible due to their school, extracurricular, employment and social requirements. Garces Williams has requested joint legal custody of Cody and primary physical custody with visitation rights to Williams.

No further information about the split was released by Williams’ representative or by Garces Williams’ attorney, Robert Kaufman. Kaufman is a Los Angeles-based family law attorney who has previously represented such major names as Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

Pamela Anderson finally got her annulment on earlier this week. Her five month marriage to Rick Salomon was declared a nullity by a Los Angeles County judge on the basis of fraud. Anderson originally filed for divorce in December, 2007 but withdrew her petition in order to reconcile with Salomon. She re-filed her petition in late February, 2008, this time seeking an annulment. Anderson’s petition claimed fraud as her grounds for annulment. Last week, Salomon filed his own request for annulment on the grounds of fraud. Neither has specifically stated how they were defrauded by the other.

You can read more about annulment in Monica Mazzei’s March 8th post on the Anderson-Salomon case. This week’s judgment does not appear to reference any property division. Presumably, Anderson and Salomon kept their assets separate for the entire two months of their marriage and did not accumulate or earn enough during that time to argue over. Anderson, of course, is an actress and model, famous for the TV series Baywatch and for her Playboy features. She was previously married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and to music star Kid Rock. Salomon is known for his videotaped bedroom romp with former girlfriend Paris Hilton. He was previously married to actress/singer Elizabeth Daily and to actress Shannen Doherty. He reportedly made millions from the release of his sex tape featuring Hilton. Interestingly, Salomon was represented by attorney Laura Wasser, who represented Johnny Knoxville in his divorce last week.

Johnny Knoxville of MTV’s Jackass (and the movies of the same name) officially got divorced late last week in Los Angeles. Knoxville, whose real name is Philip John Clapp, originally filed for divorce from his wife of 11 years, Melanie Clapp, last summer. The couple has a 12 year old daughter, Madison. Knoxville and his wife have apparently been separated since July, 2006.

Last week’s divorce judgment was the result of a bifurcation of the case. Bifurcation occurs when the entire divorce case is not decided at the same time. Certain matters can be split from the rest of the case and decided at a later date. In the Knoxville case, Knoxville and his wife were granted a divorce only, meaning each is now legally single. However, all matters relating to custody, visitation, child support, spousal support and property distribution are still pending and will be decided later (in other words, all of the difficult matters are still left). In his initial divorce filing, Knoxville sought joint legal custody and joint physical custody of their daughter. He also acknowledged that he would have to pay spousal support. It is unclear exactly why Knoxville and his wife decided to bifurcate their divorce.

In the states that allow it (some states such as New York, Texas and Michigan do not generally allow bifurcation), a case can be bifurcated in several different ways. Probably the most common bifurcation is to separate the actual divorce or change in marital status from the child-related and economic matters. Two of the most common reasons for this type of bifurcation are to allow one or both spouses to remarry and to allow one or both spouses to take advantage of a single tax filing status. Bifurcation can also be used as a psychological tool - granting the divorce itself can help some spouses move on emotionally and facilitate settlement. Sometimes, it is just used because the financial or custody aspects of the case are so complicated that full investigation and trial of the issues will take many months or even years.

A case could also be bifurcated in situations where the husband and wife agree on custody, visitation and support but not property distribution - or vice versa. The divorce can be granted and visitation ordered and then a trial can be held later to decide on property division and support.

Knoxville is represented by Laura Wasser at Wasser, Cooperman and Carter, a high-profile family law firm in Los Angeles. Laura Wasser and the Wasser firm have represented many Hollywood celebrities in their divorce and custody cases. Most recently. Laura Wasser was one of Britney Spears’ attorneys in her pending custody case. Wasser and Spears parted company last fall.

Earlier this year, basketball star Michael Jordan filed a civil lawsuit in Pennsylvania against Lisa Miceli, seeking to have Miceli permanently prohibited from contacting him, his family or his representatives. Miceli is allegedly Jordan’s former mistress and mother of a four year old son, whom she claims is Jordan’s. Jordan’s lawsuit argues that Miceli has violated a 2005 no-contact agreement by sending him and his attorneys hundreds of e-mails and voicemails, including some which were threatening or violent.

Miceli claims that she and Jordan had an intimate relationship from 1999 until 2003, when she became pregnant. She gave birth to a son in 2004. A paternity test conducted in 2004 ruled Jordan out as the child’s father. Jordan submitted to second paternity test in 2005, which again ruled him out as the father. Jordan agreed to take the second paternity test if Miceli agreed not to contact him again if the test indicated he was not the child’s father. It is this agreement that Jordan now claims Miceli violated.

According to the Erie (PA) Times-News, Miceli recently filed her official response to Jordan’s lawsuit. In that response, Miceli challenged the validity of the previous paternity tests and asked the court to address her allegations of paternity so that she could move on with “child support, custody and visitation issues for the best interest of the child.”

When the parents of a child are unmarried at the time the child is born, the courts must actually establish legal paternity of the child before there can be any judgment of child support, custody or visitation. This will often be a simple procedure where the father merely admits that he is, in fact, the child’s father. If there is no admission, however, the court will order a DNA test which compares the alleged father’s DNA to the child’s DNA. This can be done by blood test but is quite often done by buccal swab - or a quick scrape of the cells and saliva from the inside of your cheek. The samples are then sent to an independent lab and compared. DNA tests can determine (or rule out) parentage with almost 100% accuracy.

Reports indicate that Jordan’s two paternity tests were processed by completely different labs but both determined that he was not the father of Miceli’s child. There has been no public indication as to Miceli’s basis for arguing that the first two tests were invalid. The Pennsylvania judge has not yet been asked to rule on her redundant paternity request.

While all eyes are on the prostitution scandal involving former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, ex-New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey and his estranged wife Dina Matos McGreevey continue to battle over every detail of their divorce case, almost three and a half years after they first separated. This past weekend, Theodore Pederson, a potential witness in the case, revealed that he was involved in regular sexual threesomes with the McGreeveys from 1999 to 2001 - both before and after their marriage in 2000. Pederson, a former campaign aide to McGreevey, casts doubts on Matos McGreevey’s claim that she was in the dark about her husband’s homosexual preference until just before he resigned as governor in August 2004. Pederson is expected to be called as a witness in the divorce trial, scheduled to begin in May. Continue reading "Gay Ex-New Jersey Governor’s Divorce Heats Up, Heading to Trial"

Following up on our report from last week, a judge has awarded Heather Mills a total of $48.6 million (24.3 million British pounds) in her divorce from pop legend Paul McCartney. The judgment, made public today by the court, gives Mills a lump sum of $33 million and allows her to keep $15.6 million in assets she already holds. McCartney is also ordered to pay the nanny and school expenses of the couple’s four year old daughter Beatrice and provide Mills with approximately $70,000 in child support each year.

The judge’s summary of the decision, made available to the media, stated that Mills asked for approximately $250 million and McCartney offered about $32 million. The judge also stated that he found, based on the evidence presented to him, that McCartney was worth about $800 million and not the $1.5 billion figure which has been previously reported. He also indicated that he did not consider the conduct of the parties in making his decision, as it was irrelevant.

After the ruling was made official this morning, Mills told the media that she was very happy with the decision but that she planned to appeal the decision to make the full detailed ruling public. While the court did release the short summary, the full decision has not yet been released pending Mills’ appeal.

Surely of special interest to Mills, the judge’s order also prohibits either side from publicly speaking about the case, Beatrice or “any marital confidences.” It appears then that both Mills and McCartney will not be allowed to profit from any “tell-all” interview or book deal.

British media report that the most expensive divorce judgment in the U.K. was 48 million British pounds, awarded to the wife of an insurance millionaire after a 28 year marriage.

Britney Spears’ and Kevin Federline’s attorneys were at it again last week. The lawyers appeared before Commissioner Scott Gordon in Los Angeles to argue over legal fees. Today, Spears was ordered to pay $375,000 of Federline’s attorney’s fees in the custody modification battle that has been heated for months. While Federline receives child support from Spears for their two young sons and presumably makes some sort of income for his intermittent acting gigs and public appearances, he is clearly not in the same financial position as Spears, who reportedly makes at least $700,000 per month. Federline apparently owes nearly $500,000 to his attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan. Stacy Phillips, Spears’ newest attorney, claims that Spears has already spent over $1 million on the custody case.

Phillips argued that Federline has plenty of money available to pay his own fees, pointing out a $2,000 tip Federline left on a $365 restaurant check recently and also argued that Kaplan’s fees were unreasonable. Kaplan countered by arguing that he was in court on the case eight times between September and January alone due solely to Spears’ behavior and bad judgment and in support of Federline’s attempts to protect the welfare of the children. Several additional court appearances were necessary after Spears’ two involuntary psychiatric commitments in January and February of this year. Continue reading "Britney Ordered to Pay K-Fed’s Legal Fees"

With all the recent talk about how much Heather Mills stands to get in her divorce from Paul McCartney, we got to wondering what the other biggest divorce settlements were. There are a lot of lists out there, but we couldn’t find one as comprehensive as the one we’ve put together here.

It’s not surprising to discover that many of the marriages on this list were fairly long term (at least for Hollywood). In general, the longer the marriage, the larger the divorce settlement or award will be - for this group, at least. In the longer marriages, there was more time to accumulate marital wealth (also known as community property). For the shorter marriages on this list, the length of the marriage might not have made a big difference because it was the timing of the marriage that resulted in a big payout. If a celebrity has a few big hits at the box office or on the radio during a short coupling, the marital assets earned during that time could be substantial. For a great example of this, check out the Linda Hamilton/James Cameron divorce discussed below.

Celebrity Divorces: the Rich and Famous

• $3.5 million: actor/comedian Jim Carrey and Melissa Womer, his first wife. Carrey and Womer were married for eight years, from 1987 to 1995. They have one child together. The couple met and married before Carrey hit it big in Hollywood. During their marriage, Carrey found comedic success and starred in the television show In Living Color and in movies Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb & Dumber.
• $6 million: actor Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen. Stallone and Nielsen were married for only two years, but those two years saw the success of Stallone’s Rocky IV and Rambo films.
• $12 million: Stallone and his first wife Sasha. Stallone was married to Sasha for 11 years, from 1974 to 1985. They have two sons. After their divorce, Stallone almost immediately married Brigitte Nielsen. It was during his marriage to Sasha that Stallone rocketed to fame and fortune with the first three Rocky movies and the first Rambo movie, First Blood.
• $15-$25 million: rock legend Mick Jagger and model Jerry Hall. Jagger and Hall met in 1977. They had two children together before marrying in 1990. They divorced in 1999 after Hall found out that Jagger fathered a child by someone else. Jagger was successful in challenging their Balinese marriage ceremony and was able to have the marriage annulled. Hall still got a substantial settlement in the neighborhood of $15 - 25 million. Jagger’s net worth at the time was reportedly about $325 million (much of this though was likely made prior to the Jagger-Hall relationship and certainly before their marriage).
• $20 million: singer Lionel Richie and his second wife, Diane Richie. Lionel met Diane when he was 36 and she was 18. They reportedly began a relationship shortly thereafter, while he was still married to his first wife Brenda (Nicole Richie’s mother). Brenda and Lionel divorced in 1993. Lionel and Diane had a child in 1994, married in 1995, then had another child in 1998. They divorced in 2004, in a very public and bitter battle.
• $20 million: television host Johnny Carson and Joanna Carson, his third wife. Johnny and Joanna were married for 11 years, 1972 to 1983, but had no children together. The couple lived and divorced in California, a community property state, where the assets accumulated during the marriage are divided equally between the divorcing spouses.
• $20 million: rock star Bruce Springsteen and Julianne Phillips. Springsteen married the relatively unknown model/actress in 1985, at the height of his commercial popularity following the Born in the USA album. They divorced in 1989. He immediately began seeing his bandmate and future second wife Patti Scialfa. This short term marriage was timed right (or wrong, if you’re Springsteen) because of the vast amounts of money brought in by Springsteen between ‘85 and ‘89.
• $25 million: actor Clint Eastwood and Maggie, his wife of 31 years. Clint and Maggie Eastwood were married from 1953 to 1984. They were married before he became a star. Over the years, Maggie endured Clint’s numerous affairs. He even had a child by another woman while married to Maggie. She went on to have two children by Clint and didn’t divorce him for another 20 years. During their marriage, Clint became a huge international movie star.

And those don’t even crack the top 15… Continue reading "The Biggest Celebrity Divorce Awards Ever"

Heather Mills will be a very wealthy woman after her divorce from music legend Paul McCartney is final. Exactly how rich is yet to be seen but may be discovered as soon as Monday. British media reported on Friday that the judge who heard the McCartney-Mills divorce last month has sent a preliminary judgment to both parties. The judgment is expected to be entered on Monday, March 17, with a summary to be released to the public. [3/17/08 Update: McCartney-Mills Final Divorce Settlement]

Mills will reportedly receive around $50.8 million (£25 million) in property distribution. Despite spending a full week in court trying to come to a settlement agreement last month, Mills and McCartney could not reach an agreement. The case was ultimately given to the judge to decide. The court’s judgment will be binding. Either party could appeal, although the appeals process would likely make confidential details of the divorce public. Continue reading "McCartney-Mills Divorce Decision Reportedly Will Be Released Monday"

Also See: The Biggest Divorce Awards in History

Ex Beatle, Paul McCartney married model Heather Mills in June 2002, and had one daughter together - Beatrice. McCartney and Mills separated in 2006 and have been involved in a contentious divorce battle in the English Courts. Mills, whose original legal team is no longer involved, is now representing herself in the complicated divorce proceedings - almost unheard of because she stands to receive a reported £200 million (about $400 million). McCartney’s estate is estimated to be worth about £750 million (about $1.5 billion). It is likely that the public will never really know exactly what Mills will receive in the divorce because in Britain all divorce proceedings are closed to the public. Also, it is highly likely that the parties will enter into a confidentiality agreement in which they agree to keep the terms of the award secret. But many commentators have speculated that this could be the largest divorce award in British history! [3/17/2008 Update: McCartney-Mills Final Divorce Settlement]

Why Didn’t McCartney Have a Prenup?

Continue reading "One of the Most Expensive Divorces Ever: Paul McCartney and Heather Mills"