This was something that former View host Debbie Matenopoulos didn’t want to see. On Internet sites, there were rumors that her husband was cheating. Now to her shock and dismay, her husband, the music executive Jay Faires, has surprised her by filing divorce papers in California.

"I am deeply saddened by the dissolution of my seven-year relationship with my husband, a man I truly believed I would be with forever," Matenopoulos said in a statement to E! News, where she now works. “Although my public persona may seem unconventional at times, I do not take marriage and family lightly, and I am quite traditional.”

Faires filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court citing the usual — irreconcilable differences. He also said that, since the couple does not have any children and she is gainfully employed, he should not have to provide any spousal support.

It appears, he wasn’t supporting the relationship for some time. The couple, who married in July of 2003, did separate in March of this year. But like many women, Matenopoulos thought they were going through a rough patch and that maybe a separation would give them time to appreciate what they had.

But perhaps she should have read How To Tell If Your Man Is Cheating. Although she may have known that less than 5 percent of couples who separate ever get back together, hope is something all of us have when it comes to reviving troubled relationships.

Before it is truly over, women try really hard and are willing to forgive many sins in an effort to keep their marriages afloat. However, the boat has now left the dock and Matenopoulos will sail on solo, seeking a safe harbor with someone who will appreciate her, which is just what she deserves.

Have you ever wondered how difficult it must be for Jennifer Aniston to see Angelina Jolie portrayed as a model mother on magazine covers? To her credit, Aniston, who divorced Brad Pitt after he started an affair with Jolie while filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith, has stayed mum about their relationship. She did slip once when she mentioned how Pitt and Jolie were insensitive for portraying a 50's family scene in W Magazine when the wounds of her break-up were still so raw.

But she didn't unleash — except to girlfriends like Courteney Cox — her feelings about the woman who seduced her husband. Until now. She is promoting her Christmas movie, Marley & Me, and it seemed the right time to unload. (The title of her next film, He’s Just Not That Into You, might be too close to home.)

In the December issue of Vogue magazine, Aniston commented on her annoyance at Jolie for recounting a detailed timeline of how she fell in love with Pitt.

"There was stuff printed there that was definitely from a time when I was unaware that it was happening," said Aniston, who could have benefiting from reading our story on How to Catch a Cheating Husband.

"I felt those details were a little inappropriate to discuss,” Aniston said. “That stuff about how she couldn't wait to get to work every day? That was really uncool."

Yet she seems to have less icy feelings toward her ex, Brad Pitt, who was equally responsible for the affair. After all, it takes two to do a tantric tango.

"[We've exchanged] a few very kind hellos ... and congratulations on your babies," she said.

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Rebecca Romijn knows a thing or two about X-Men and wants to set the record straight. In an interview with Page Six magazine, Romijn, who starred as Mystique in the X-Men movies, refuted rumors that her divorce from John Stamos happened because she didn’t want kids.

“There is absolutely no truth to that,” said Romijn who has a recurring role in the hit television show Ugly Betty. “I desperately wanted kids. I was never a girl who dreamed about what her wedding day would be like, but I’ve always dreamed about decorating my baby’s nursery.”

Well, her dream is coming true. Now happily married to Jerry O’Connell, who played a detective in the TV series Crossing Jordan, she is seven months pregnant with twin girls and looks, as she says, like a “beached whale.”

Romijn was married to Stamos (best known from ER) from 1998 to 2005. But one can suppose that she may have had lingering doubts about the relationship, and wanted to wait until she was certain about the marriage before building a family. Sometimes you don’t really know someone until you live with them for a while. They can be fun boyfriends or even a romantic husband but a wife might wonder if they have the qualities to be a good family man.

As for O’Donnell, Romijn said, “I knew early on he would be a fantastic dad. He’s a pragmatic, smart, savvy, enthusiastic person. He really lives his life with tremendous integrity and he’s a healthy person in every single way.”

The couple married in 2007. O’Connell had to backtrack on a comment he made on Conan O’Brien’s show in September, when he called his wife “huge.” He told People magazine, "I meant to say that there are specific areas of my wife that are larger than normal and growing every day. All other portions of my wife are quite petite. I apologize to her and will be coming home with flowers."

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Some call it karma or comeuppence,  or stars colliding but not in your favor: Sienna Miller's romance with "Brothers and Sisters" star Balthazar Getty now seems over.  Sources say that Getty was stalling getting the divorce he had promised, and now the relationship is over.

As we reported, Miller was caught canoodling with the very married Getty this summer. The affair sparked a lot of criticism since Getty has a wife and four children, one just a baby.

Although his representative released the standard defensive, that the actor had had problems in his relationship before this happened and he and his wife were in the midst of separating, the news came a shock to his wife, Rosetta.

In the past four months, Rosetta has played it smart by building her own life away from her husband but still welcoming him to share the children's birthdays and school events. This allowed him to see what he was missing while the novelty of something new perhaps wore off with the ho-hum of everyday life. Plus, it's hard to be involved in a relationship that so many disapprove of, something the couple faced on a daily basis. Getty complained about the intrusiveness of the press, calling it "dangerous."

Last weekend, Miller acknowledged to Us Magazine that it's "nice not to have a relationship that the press constantly want to scrutinize."

Well Sienna, the press wouldn't be scrutinizing it as much if you were not with a married man.

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When you're an actor, a profession where divorce rates soar, one must have a defense strategy to stay married. For 90210 veteran Jennie Garth, it's accepting that someone will be cuter than her hunky hubby Peter Facinelli. The former star of WB's What I Like About You knows she may "be on set" with someone she likes, but has to mentally resist temptation. The mother of three daughters with Facinelli told OK! magazine that she is determined to make her marriage work.

Aren't we all? Don't we all hope our relationship will stick like crazy glue vs. scotch tape, which can be ripped away?

But having a defensive approach may be smart. It means that you realize how fragile relationships can be.

Clearly some Hollywood marriages last longer than a season. Jada and Will Smith have been married for 11 years, and vow to stick together. Other long-term celebrity marriages that thrive include Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scalia, Stephen Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, and the late Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. But notice how a member of each of these couples has been divorced — and with the lessons learned, chose partners that complement their individual needs and personality. Love then flourished and endured.

Others make a different vow that is equally as binding: After they have gotten divorced, they don't remarry, but are committed couples all the same. Look at Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, or Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. For these couples, marriage may be the pitts, but love is as sweet as a cherry.

This isn't a trick but a treat. Seems like Tea Leoni and David Duchnovy, who announced their separation in October, were able to put their marital battles aside and take their kids Madeleine and Kyd trick-or-treating on Halloween. Today Page Six in The New York Post quoted a source who said, "They were very cute and were holding hands."

The source said Leoni "looked very mellow and relaxed" while chatting with friends with their kids.

It's easy to understand why she may have been stressed this summer after Duchnovy was treated for sex addiction. That is awfully embarrassing for any family especially when it's also very public.

However, people can surrender their egos and hurts for the greater good.

Kids are often the connective tissue that reminds parents how much they share. It is that family time – especially holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas — that is often missed after a divorce. However as a friend once told me, "I loved spending holidays with my ex — just not any other day."

Either way, whether they stay together or separate, one can break up and still rebuild a new family structure where happy times are shared, just not 24/7.

Jo Wood, the soon to be ex-wife of The Rolling Stones rocker Ronnie Wood, gave it her all to try and reconcile, but to no avail. However, her husband is planning on being very generous in honoring their 23-year marriage.

Wood, who has moved on and hooked up with 20-year-old Ekaterina “Katia” Ivanova, is reportedly offering Jo a multi-million dollar sum as well as almost $5 million a year. When the affair was first reported, speculation was that Jo could get as much as $81 million of Ron Wood's $114 million fortune.

A source close to Wood told a British tabloid that "Ronnie feels the marriage is over but he wants to do the right thing by Jo — even though they have not talked for months."

Although Wood hired Joyce Smyth, the same attorney that his bandmate Sir Mick Jagger used to divorce Jerry Hall, he has instructed the barrister to work out an amicable deal for the good of the family.

Meanwhile, Jo (pictured) is showing that she is not wasting any more time pining for Ron. She has resolved to move on and find a new life and love.

As British tabloid News Of The World reported, Jo partied last week at an exclusive nightspot in London's Mayfair, with one onlooker saying: "She showed girls half her age how to have a good time."

But one also knows that there must be private moments where she needs to mourn the end of her marriage and find ways to fill the holes left by his absence.

Ron Wood has been romancing Katia since leaving rehab in September. Reports also say that he is planning to take her with him when he reunites with his band The Faces to go on tour next year.

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Despite everyone’s assumptions, E! Network has renewed Denise Richards’ “It’s Complicated,” a reality show inspired by her contentious divorce from "Two-and-a-Half Men" star Charlie Sheen. As divorced women know, this life event can get complicated — but some break-ups have more drama than others.

And Richards divorce makes the title “It’s Complicated” perfectly apt.

Richards and Sheen have been battling in the tabloids since their break-up in 2006. Complicating matters, after she split from Sheen, Richards started going out with Richie Sambora, who was married to her friend Heather Locklear.

Richards told Larry King that she “did not break up the marriage” because Locklear had already filed for divorce. “Richie and I were friends and they were going through their divorce,” she said.

Her divorce alone provided plenty of material for the first season of her show. It averaged 1.1 million viewers a week, which is why E! has made a commitment for a second season.

Recently, Sheen unsuccessfully fought to prevent their two young girls, Sam and Lola, from being part of “It’s Complicated.” But Richards won that battle and claims she is not exploiting them.

“In making a decision to do a reality show, I needed to commit to that and I wanted it to be real,” she told King. “And the reality is I’m a single mom to two little girls. The show is not about my children. They aren’t featured in the show. They’re in it very little. We’re just doing every day life and it’s being filmed.”

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We all hear the varying stats on infidelity: in one recent study of 4,884 married women, some 6 percent said in computer questionnaires that they had been unfaithful in the last year. But finally someone has addressed a more intriguing question in the scientific study of marriage: are women remaining true to their husbands in their hearts?

“It’s certainly plausible that women might have increased their relative rate of infidelity over time,” Edward O. Laumann, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago told The New York Times.

“But it isn’t going to be a huge number. The real thing to talk about is where are they in terms of their relationship and the marital bond.”

Meaning in layman’s — or rather laywoman’s — terms: did someone stray at a troubled time in the marriage or at the end of a failing relationship?

Was the infidelity a momentary fling and the marriage can be repaired? Or did it torpedo a relationship and lead to divorce?

In The New York Times article, sociologists pointed out that women are cheating more because they have more options than in the past when they were sequestered in their homes with a brood of children. Now many are working women interacting with a larger pool of people and — surprise, surprise — not that much different than men.

And even for women who stay home, cell phones, e-mail and instant messaging appear to be allowing them to form more intimate relationships outside their marriages, therapists say.

The article also examined why there might be conflicting data on infidelity. In that study referenced up top, a joint project of the University of Colorado and Texas A&M University, only 1 percent of those same women admitted to adultery in the last year when asked about it in person.

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When you get divorced, you quickly learn who are your friends and who are your frenemies. Madonna must be smiling because Gwyneth Paltrow and Trudie Styler are publicly rallying behind their pop star pal.

And let’s face it, when you are emotionally raw, you need faithful friends to vent to, even if you are a superstar.

Paltrow, who is married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin, sounds like she is giving the cold shoulder to Madonna’s soon-to-be ex, filmmaker Guy Ritchie. “I'm supporting her in all the ways that I can,” says Paltrow. “I'm just there for her. I speak to her a lot.”

Paltrow spoke about their friendship at the premiere of her film “Two Lovers” at the London Film Festival. She, like Madonna, lives part time in London.

Producer Trudie Styler, who is married to Sting, and is responsible for introducing Madonna to Ritchie 10 years ago, confirmed that their relationship had been in turmoil for quite a while.

“I love them both,” she told Access Hollywood with the diplomacy of a U.N. ambassador. “Obviously they’ve been struggling for a while. They're both dear friends of mine and all good things sometimes come to an end.”

And then she added, “I think they're destined to become great pals.”

Every divorced woman can’t help but monitor who is in her camp and who is in her ex’s camp. Although conventional wisdom says that a friend shouldn’t be asked to choose sides, it is very hard for someone getting divorced to share their innermost thoughts, knowing that you could be talking to a spy. Friends get divided into categories.

Some are cashmere. Some are wool. Some are polyester.

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