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.

Instead of a marriage prenup, leave it to the ancestors of Solomon to figure out a divorce prenup. Yes indeedy. This week, Israel's Knesset (the country's Parliament) informed the High Court of Justice it would vote on a bill aimed at dividing assets of couples undergoing divorce procedures before the divorce was granted.

This concept is designed to prevent a spouse — usually the spurned one — from extorting a larger settlement in exchange for agreeing to the divorce.

According to the petitioners, the husband uses the power of the purse to get agreement from the wife in the majority of cases. In Israel, as in the U.S., more women launch divorce proceedings than do men.

The Haredi parties (religious leaders) strongly oppose the bill regarding it as an attempt to weaken the rabbinical courts' power. (In the Jewish faith, you have to get a get, a blessing/permission from a rabbi, before getting a divorce.)

A court can rule that you and your hubby split up, but until they get a get, the religious feel they can't remarry, and that the divorce is not accepted in the eyes of God.

The problem with the new law, others argue, is that it would make divorce so egalitarian that the person who suffers doesn't get a little extra for the hassle and pain. And they say, it may make divorce too easy.

However, let's face it. Few people are cavalier about divorce and most come to that decision with great difficulty.

The bill was approved last July, but it is up to the Knesset to make a final decision.

Being addicted to your wife is one thing, being addicted to drugs is another. Which is supposedly why Gretchen Bonaduce divorced her husband, Danny, after 16 years of marriage. Now Danny Bonaduce has agreed to pay $16,000 a month in child support and alimony.

According to People, he will also get joint custody of his two children, a 13-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. The way the settlement breaks down is that he will pay $6,000 to his kids and $10,000 for his wife. Gretchen Bonaduce filed for divorce in 2007 after the two appeared in the VH1 reality show Breaking Bonaduce.

The two will also split their accumulated assets. Obviously the couple tried to work it out but sometimes the strains and pains of dealing with a partner’s substance abuse creates such a breakdown of trust that it cannot be repaired.

The Bonaduces do plan on co-parenting their kids amicably and with affection.

Now a DJ, Danny Bonaduce was best known for playing the red-headed kid with the bass in the TV show The Partridge Family.

Gov. Sarah Palin just won an important vote. Despite Alaska's legislature finding that she abused her power by firing a public safety commissioner, the state personnel board issued its own report and said she didn't violate "Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with these matters."

Those matters were reportedly being annoyed that Walt Monegan, the public safety commissioner, wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, state trooper Mike Wooten, who she despised. 
As we reported, Palin denied the claim and said Monegan was fired in July because she wanted the department to head in a new direction. The case became known as Palin's Troopergate.

"The Governor is grateful that this investigation has provided a fair and impartial review of this matter and upholds the Governor's ability to take measures when necessary to ensure that Alaskans have the best possible team working to serve them," Palin’s attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said in a statement after the report was released Monday. 


However, Monegan is as confused as others by this new report.

Monegan told The Associated Press on Monday he was "perplexed and disappointed" by the latest report, which was prepared by Timothy Petumenos, an independent investigator for the Alaska Personnel Board.

"It conflicts with the first investigation and then casts doubts on both of them. So, it doesn't really resolve anything," Monegan said. "If it did, then I could walk away. It does seem to fly in the face of circumstantial evidence."

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.

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.”

Rosie O'Donnell never minces words. Part of the reason we love her, right? In supporting Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, whose mother, brother and nephew were tragically murdered in Chicago, she blamed "guns and domestic violence."

In her blog, O'Donnell wrote, "Guns and domestic violence are a lethal combination — injuring and killing women every day in the United States. A gun is the weapon most commonly used in domestic homicides. In fact, more than three times as many women are murdered by guns used by their husbands or intimate acquaintances than are killed by strangers’ guns, knives or other weapons combined. Contrary to many public perceptions, many women who are murdered are killed not by strangers but by men they know."

Those men could be husbands, ex-husbands or even stepfathers.

She also cited these stats:

• Nearly one-third of all women murdered in the United States in recent years were murdered by a current or former intimate partner. In 2000, 1,247 women, more than three a day, were killed by their intimate partners.

• Of females killed with a firearm, almost two-thirds of were killed by their intimate partners.

• Access to firearms increases the risk of intimate partner homicide more than five times more than in instances where there are no weapons, according to a recent study. In addition, abusers who possess guns tend to inflict the most severe abuse on their partners.

• In 2002, 54 percent of female homicide victims were shot and killed with a gun.

Details are still sketchy on who shot Hudson’s family.

Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson and brother Jason Hudson were with the Oscar winner’s nephew, Julian King, at the boy’s home in Chicago. His mother, Julia Hudson, was not in the house at the time of the murders.

Getting divorced is an emotional experience – even if it happens in a virtual, online world. A Japanese woman got so angry when her virtual husband ditched her that she hacked the system to whack him.
 
According to Japanese police, the woman, who was jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used the man’s identification and password in mid-May to log onto the Korean interactive game Maple Story (right) to carry out the virtual hara kiri.

The woman was a 43-year-old piano teacher in Miyazaki, the man was a 33-year-old office worker in Sapporo. "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the virtual cougar told investigators.

Reality check. This did not happen in the real world. Her online avatar had met and “married” his online avatar, who then dumped her without warning. Any woman can understand the hurt. While the couple was happily “married,” he had told her his login and password, perhaps as a way of showing trust. Mistake!

She did not, officials said, plot any revenge in the real world. Still, if convicted, she could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

As AP noted, players in Maple Story operate in a two-dimensional virtual world where they engage “in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles."

Instead of remaining in the virtual world, and perhaps sending a monster after her avatar, the man went to the police when he discovered that his avatar was kaput.

The material girl is going to pay some Madonnamony. That is our term for when a female celebrity like Madonna has to pay manimony in excess of $30 million. It was reported this weekend that Madonna and her soon-to-be-ex husband Guy Ritchie are close to an agreement on assets and custody arrangements.

Ritchie, who has been married to Madonna since December of 2000, will probably get the 1,200 acre country estate in Wiltshire — worth $25 million — the English pub called Punchbowl in Mayfair, worth $4 million, and another $17 million in cash in exchange for her keeping their townhouse in Marylebone, London, the house next door and two mews cottages. It’s clear the RocknRolla director, who is now shooting Sherlock Holmes in London with Robert Downey Jr., will not be hurting financially, although reports say that in return for the money he’s agreed not to talk about his marriage to Madonna.

Madonna will keep her New York and Los Angeles homes as well as her cash — hundreds of millions — and her cachet of being such a popular and enduring superstar. According to The Sun, "the negotiations were relatively painless." Guy knew what he wanted and “Madonna knew what she was keen to keep. There was a spell when Guy was in a mood to dig his heels in, but he decided this arrangement seemed reasonable and a long battle over money would make life unbearable."

Although Madonna’s publicist said that the details are not final, reports in The Sun and The Daily Mail indicate that Madonna is likely to get custody of her son with Ritchie, Rocco Ritchie, 8, and David Banda, the 3-year-old they adopted from Malawi. Ritchie will have liberal visitation rights with the boys, who will live with Lourdes Leon, 12, Madonna's child with Carlos Leon.