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