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Massachusetts Gay Marriage Pioneers to Divorce

Julie and Hillary Goodridge led civil rights battle in 2004

Posted to Relevant News by Jill Brooke on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 3:53pm

The lesbian couple who led the fight for gay marriage in Massachusetts in 2004 obviously took some of their fighting spirit into the marital home. Julie and Hilary Goodridge have now filed for divorce.

The unpairing isn't a complete surprise since they have been separated since 2006.

Julie and Hilary became feminist icons for gay marriage because of what seemed like rock-solid stability. Together for two decades, loving mothers to daughter Ann, now 13, and financially stable, the couple helped sway public opinion to the civil rights cause. At the time, as the Boston Globe characterized it, they portrayed themselves as any other couple.

Well now in fact they are. Except they got divorced in less time than the national average which is 7.8 years.

According to the Globe, since gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts in May 2004, about 7,300 same-sex couples have obtained licenses.There have been about 45 divorces; the number of separations has not been reported.

Ellen Barkin to Star as Divorced Cougar in New HBO Series

Posted to Relevant News by Jill Brooke on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 11:46am

Ellen Barkin is showing women how divorce can be mined for hilarious and profitable material. The star of "Sea of Love," who traveled through turbulent waters in her high-profile divorce from billionaire businessman Ron Perelman, has just signed a deal with HBO. Gotta love that. (Though Perelman most likely won't).

In the pilot, which was steered by Ann Blanchard (one of the forces behind FWW's own Hot Flashes), Barkin stars as a woman who struggles to find her sea legs after being tossed and turned through her divorce. Not only does she find new horizons but a new love too — and, yup — he's a young hunk.

Shauna Cross is writing the pilot and describes Barkin's character as someone who is "in her early 50s whose life explodes suddenly. Her nerve and life experience allows her to tell the world to go screw itself, and they love her for it."

Housing Crisis Complicates Debbie Matenopoulos Divorce

Posted to Relevant News by Jill Brooke on Wed, 01/28/2009 - 9:22am

Marital homes are not only assets but increasingly sources of dueling divorce battles. And here's a doozy that was reported in People.

Debbie Matenopoulos's estranged husband says their marital house is now only worth $4.3 million and not $8 million, and she better sell or he'll stop supporting the Los Angeles' home's upkeep.

In court documents, Jay Faires, 45, an L.A. music executive who makes $37,500 per month before taxes, is demanding that the E! Entertainment host, 33, either help pay the mortgage, agree to refinance, or move out and sell the home, according to his filing.

Furthermore, pulling the rug from under her, he says they both lived beyond their means and she had better adapt to a new reality.

He also says he's floored by all the expenses that he has to pay compare to her.

Texas Same-Sex Divorce Hits Road Block

State says no thanks to gay divorce

Posted to Relevant News by Maureen Dempsey on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 11:39am

A same-sex couple who wed in Massachusetts in 2006, but lives in Texas, are ready to dissolve the marriage, but are finding opponents at every turn, reports Fort Worth news station web site WFAA.com.

Marrying in one state and divorcing in another will undoubtedly become a growing problem. California christened its first lesbian divorce case in August (Remember when same-sex marriage was easy-breezy in the golden state?)

An attorney for one of the men seeking the divorce says it’s simply the dissolution of a contract. Plain and simple. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, however, has already voiced opposition to the case.

This, however, seems to be more about Texas rejecting another state’s legislature and less about gay rights. (Somehow that makes it better.)

Man Killed Estranged Wife Over "Single" Facebook Status

Sentenced to 18 years for brutal murder

Posted to Relevant News by Jill Brooke on Sun, 01/25/2009 - 9:14am

Hell hath no fury like a husband scorned — even if it's on Facebook. Last year, a British man murdered his wife after she listed her status as single on the popular social network. According to AP, now Edward Richardson will spend the next eighteen years in jail for stabbing his wife Sarah in a "frenzied and brutal attack" in her parent's home in Biddulph, England.

The news agency reports that they had been living apart. Detective Andy Wall, who worked on the case, said that although she thought the marraige was over, it was something her husband couldn't accept.

Excuse me. What is unacceptable is that wives can be targets after leaving husbands, and have to be aware of the danger signs. And it happens more often than you think.

Basketball Star's Divorce Details Include an STD

Wife claims b-baller infected her...

Posted to Relevant News by Maureen Dempsey on Tue, 01/20/2009 - 12:05pm

Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade's extramarital exploits could soon become public record. The 27-year-old basketball star filed for divorce last year, but his ex, Siohvaughn, has recently requested a list of any women he slept with during the course of their seven year marriage, says the Miami Herald. (The couple, shown here, in 2006.)

Why, you ask? Because Siohvaughn alleges that Dwayne infected her with an STD. Aside from other serious allegations, from cutting her off financially to purchasing a $2 million church for his mother instead, Siohvaughn says Dwayne and his "paramours" are liable for the physical, emotional, and mental injury she endured when diagnosed.

The former couple are high-school sweethearts and have two sons together, although the boys' mother says Dwayne spends no time with their children and the younger of the two, just one year old, doesn't recognize his father. Dwyane was named a 2007 "Father of the Year" by the National Father's Day Committee.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie Make Nice for Daughter

Posted to Relevant News by Jill Brooke on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 12:17pm

You gotta love your kids more than you hate your ex... or even dislike your ex. Which is why Madonna is showing that she is a real Madonna — a.k.a. motherlike figure — in listening to daughter Lourdes's request to be nice to her stepfather, Guy Ritchie.

I guess in Madonna's world, Papa Shouldn't Preach, but her daughter can.

In an interview with the New York Daily News, a friend of Madonna's told the paper that the couple, who recently divorced after eight years together, are "working very hard to have an amicable divorce because Lourdes came to them begging, ‘Please don't be mean to each other.' Then she told them she wanted everything to be as friendly as possible."

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