This week’s celebrity divorce news round-up features the full slate of love and scandal that we have come to expect from the headline-grabbers and gossip column characters.

Among the stories, a TV psychologist finds new love quickly on the heels of a divorce, a songstress denies breaking up another marriage, and an on-again, off-again Hollywood marriage finally and officially comes to an end.

Kelsey Grammer recently Tweeted and blogged about the divorce from his wife of 13 years, Camille Donatacci, denying a few rumors that were floating around and asking the press for privacy. Well, only a month on from his wife’s divorce filing, Grammer has been seen around town with a new flame.

CNN is reporting that Grammer has been seen out and about with “a mystery blonde.” A publicist for Grammer did not expand upon the identity of the TV star’s date, but did say that “they are very happy together,” and provided the tidbit that his new fling is not involved in the entertainment industry.

TMZ.com had posted a video of Grammer and the woman kissing and holding hands while walking in Manhattan. Grammer is currently starring in the musical “La Cage Aux Folles” on Broadway.

In potentially more scandalous news, American Idol star and singer Fantasia Barrino has had to deflect a series of rumors stemming from a divorce filing that claims that her affair with a married man broke up that marriage, according to USAToday.

A North Carolina woman made those claims in a divorce filing, saying that her husband, Antwuan Cook, had a “covert adulterous affair” with Fantasia, which was a reason for the couple’s break-up.

Fantasia, however, has denied that anything that she did was a reason for the divorce. According to her manager, “Fantasia is certain that she is not responsible for the deterioration of the Cook’s marriage.” Fantasia’s lawyer went so far as to claim that the woman, Paula Cook, was attempting to sensationalize her divorce, telling TMZ.com, “Mrs. Cook gratuitously included claims about Fantasia to sensationalize that litigation and to insure that her tale would be picked up by tabloids.”

Mrs. Cook also claimed in the divorce filing that she had spoken to Fantasia on the phone, and that the American Idol star told her, of her husband, “he don’t want you. Maybe the next time that you get a husband you’ll know how to keep him. That’s why he is here with me.”

The ongoing marriage saga of actors Sean Penn and Robin Wright seems to be over, now that divorce papers have officially been filed. The couple has split and gotten back together a number of times over the years, but court show that they are now officially divorced, according to the Associated Press.

Their 14-year-marriage ended after Wright filed for divorce last August. This was the third time that they had petitioned for either separation or divorce. The couple will share custody of their 16-year-old son. They also have a 19-year-old daughter together.

There were no details on financial figures, and the couple has not responded to requests for comment.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

People are now traveling on vacations on their own more often than ever, as much as 25% of all Americans, according to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune.

For these solo travelers, some of the most frustrating words they can encounter while planning a vacation is ‘based on double occupancy’.

At least part of the reason for this trend is believed to be the marriage cycle. “People are getting married later… There are more divorces. It’s become more popular to travel as a single,” says Ann Thomas, director of Singles Travel Co.

So, if you’re one of the many individuals who wants to travel after a divorce, but who doesn’t have a partner to accompany you, what are your best options?

One of the pioneers in this is the Norwegian Cruise Line, which offers 128 ‘studio’ suites which are designed mainly for one person.

However, if you see a deal from a cruise company, be careful. Often times the advertisement will have language about traveling for half the price, but the fine print will note that this would mean sharing a room with a stranger—something most of us would like to avoid after our first year in a dorm room.

The poor performance by the economy has, however, been of some help to the solo traveler. With extra room available, singles on cruises, if they catch the right deal, have been able to get a double room for the price of a single traveler.

Something that is easy to forget if you’re planning a solo voyage, price isn’t everything. Spencer Brown of CruiseCritic.com, and an expert in the area, reinforces the point by telling you to “[a]sk yourself if you’re going to be happy as a solo voyager on a cruise ship” if not then perhaps you should “pick a ship that’s social,” stating that Crystal Cruises “really [goes] to a lot of trouble to match you with people you’d enjoy. And Holland America has great enrichment programs, which are good places to meet and make connections. If you’re young and single, Carnival’s great.”

You should also pick a destination that you would want to go. If you like warm and tropical, an Antarctic cruise might not be the best fit for you—even if you enjoy the atmosphere of the boat.

When you’re planning yourself a trip, be certain to ask questions. Try to see if you can get a deal as a single traveler, ask what the atmosphere is like. You should also know what answers you want to hear. If you’re looking for a fun-time party atmosphere, and you’re told the cruise a week-long of relaxation, then perhaps you should reconsider this as your trip.

As long as you do your research, and get as good a deal as you can, then you should have no problem finding a way to enjoy your single vacation.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

The impact of autism on families is a much-debated topic. A recent article in the L.A. Times takes on just this subject, exploring what stages of raising an autistic child bring the highest risk for divorce.

Recent studies have found, according to the article, that the risk of divorce among families raising autistic children is significantly higher when the autistic child is young. It is then that stress rates for parents are at their highest, and when emotions can become raw, making it hard to cultivate a successful marriage.

The good news, however, is that autistic children move into their teen years, the stress on parents lets up somewhat, and the risk of divorce goes down.

Children with an autism spectrum disorder require a lot of attention, from the time that they are young even into their teenage and young adult years. Children with such disorders can be susceptible to communication problems, and to repetitive behaviors that, when combined with other difficulties, can exacerbate parental stress.

There also seems to be a perception problem he LA Times reports that some parents have been warned that the divorce rate for parents of autistic children is as high as 80 percent.

Another recent study, however, featured results that tempered these extreme perceptions of divorce in families dealing with autism. The Adolescents and Adults with Autism study looked at 391 families with autistic children, and compared them with similar families in age, sex, birth order, etc., in which children developed “normally.”

The results of that study went against the extremely high rumored divorce figures, but it did also reveal the instances when autism in families could lead to an increased risk of divorce in parent couples managing their children.

The study revealed that for couples raising a child with an ASD, the divorce rate was 23.5 percent, which is almost twice as high as the control families and their 14 percent divorce rate. When families had siblings older than the child with ASD, the rate was even higher. Also, the younger a mother was when the autistic child was born, the higher the rate of divorce, which was not the case with mothers in the control group.

For families dealing with autism, the risk of divorce continued even as their autistic child reached 30 years old. The stresses of raising an autistic child, in other words, is an even longer term stressor than a child without an ASD. In these non-ASD families, the divorce risk began to go down after children turned 8.

Assumptions about the heightened divorce risk with autistic children may have been confirmed, but other assumptions were disproved. Divorce is not more common, for example, in families with more than one child with an ASD. This is true also for families in which a child with ASK symptoms began earlier or were more severe.

The study was done by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Georgia State University and Boston University. These researchers concluded that there was also reason for hope for families impacted by autism. More than 75 percent of these marriages remain intact, against the image often presented by the media.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

There is plenty of precedent when it comes to custody battles over children of a divorce, but a new type of custody battle is on the horizon for many divorcing couples: pet custody.

Increasingly, the question is arising as to how to treat a pet when both sides of the couple have emotional attachments to that pet, and both have a stake in taking it with them. Should a dog or a cat be treated as a child would in a divorce case?

KATU in Maryland takes a look at this question, after a Maryland judge ordered shared custody of a dog in a divorce case.

Before this ruling, pets were treated as property, and therefore the pet either goes fully to one party or another, or it is sold and the proceeds are split down the middle. But more and more, people physically and emotionally treat their pets as a part of the family.

When it comes to pets in a divorce, the demands on divorce judges, therefore, are changing. The Maryland decision is one legitimate indicator of the shifting attitude.

Gail Myers is one divorcee who put custody of her dog ahead of most other property concerns when she decided to split from her partner.

“I don’t have any kids,” she told KATU, “so [her dog Lucky] is the closest that I am going to get to having a child. I have another dog as well. They are both like my kids.” When Myers decided to go through with the divorce, she did not take much with her, and had little regard for physical property. “My clothes, a few personal items, and the dog. That’s all I wanted,” she said.

The problem was that her ex-partner also wanted Lucky the dog. Therefore, contentions arose about who would be able to take the dog, or what the arrangements might be that would mirror a custody conflict over a child. The divorce that began as a no-contest separation was about to become what the article refers to as “a testy battle” over the fate of their pet dog.

In the state of Maryland, as in other states, a pet was considered on the same level as a car or a house, deemed by the law to be a piece of property. There wasn’t anything in the law about creating visitation rights that can be upheld when it came to a piece of property.

The issue, then, was whether to treat the dog as a piece of property, as a child, or somewhere in between.

Maryland Judge Graydon McKee opted to treat the pet as more of a child than a lawnmower.

He determined that it wouldn’t be fair to order the couple to sell the dog and split the proceeds. Instead, he ordered joint custody.

Lucky will go to one owner for six months, and the other for another six months.

While there are certainly details to be worked out, and limits that will likely be set, the decision could open more doors in the divorce process involving pets. The decision simultaneously acknowledges the emotional attachment that owners have with their pets, but it also could complicate proceedings.

“It would certainly complicate divorce litigation, clearly,” said Marlene Eskind Moses, of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “It would be a time-consuming proposition.”

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

It looks like the Speidi divorce could be real, as Heidi Montag has filed for divorce from her fellow reality star and husband, Spencer Pratt.

Montag and Pratt, two pseudo-celebrities who made names for themselves on the pseudo-reality show The Hills, have been known to do strange things for attention.

Whether they are crashing premiere parties or bailing out of reality TV shows, it’s always questionable what is real or fake, and what about them can be believed.

What seemed like their latest ruse, however, could turn out to be more of a reality than many thought, as Montag has in fact filed for real divorce in Santa Monica, California, Superior Court, according to People.com.

The divorce filing came several months after Montag went to court to seek legal separation from Pratt. She cited irreconcilable differences in the divorce filing, a commonly cited reason for divorce.

“Heidi has amended her petition for separation and today has filed a petition for dissolution of marriage from Spencer Pratt,” said her lawyer, Jodeane Farrell. “The couple has agreed they would like their divorce to be finalized in a timely manner in an out of court settlement. Both parties are amicable with each other and over the possibility of finalizing their divorce.”

Such a tone was widely unexpected, as many speculated that the announcements about their separation were simply the latest in their series of publicity stunts meant to draw attention to themselves and raise the hackles of the celebrity-tracking public.

Even after Montag filed for divorce, there have been rumors circling that the two are living together, acting as though nothing had changed in their lives together.

They put those rumors to rest, however, saying that while they do still spend time together, they were no longer living in the same place. And they aren’t going to get back together.

“We don’t live together,” Pratt told People.com. Montag lives in Malibu, while Pratt spends some time in their Pacific Palisades home.

Montag let the public know that the two were on pretty good terms. “Spencer and I are finally moving forward with our lives,” she said, “but with any divorce there is much to work through. We’ve been together for almost five years—there are assets to divide, work to be discussed, and we share our puppies.”

Montag noted that it hasn’t been an easy process. “This has been a heartbreaking experience to go through,” she said. “We just want different things in life.”

Pratt agreed, in his usual strange way, telling the press that his marriage was “a show. It was part of The Hills world, and that world is on a sound stage.”

He went on to spout even stranger explanations, referring to himself in the third person: “It’s clear that reality TV-fame-loving Spencer Pratt does not fit with my ex-wife Heidi Montag’s ambitions for a motion picture actor/pop star career and being a single sex symbol for the world.”

The couple was married last April, in a Pasadena, California, church.

No word yet on who will get custody of the puppies.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

Tiki Barber once received headlines for his on the field heroics, then for his football commentary, but now he’s getting the headlines for a less desired reason.

In Aprill, Barber was seen around town with a former NBC intern. To make Barber’s actions more distasteful, his pregnant wife was spending a week in the hospital at the time.

Barber is now facing a divorce from his wife, according to the New York Post. Tiki and his wife, Ginny, already have two sons, age seven and six, but that hasn’t stopped Barber from moving on to his new girlfriend.

Ginny is apparently outraged at Tiki’s apparent low-balling in their out of court negotiations surrounding financial support.

The divorce was filed in a Manhattan Supreme Court, which in New York is the trial level of the judicial system, and accepted by Tiki’s attorney.

Reports state that Tiki broke it off with his wife of 11 years for the 23-year-old intern, who he met while she was still a student at Mount St. Mary College in upstate New York.

The aftermath of Tiki’s decision was immediate. Barber was benched from his job as a correspondent for NBC Sports after the New York Post first reported on his infidelity.

Apparently Tiki and Ginny had been having problems even before she became pregnant this most recent time.

The 23-year-old that Tiki ran off with, Trace Johnson, was courted by Barber with a shower of gifts, according to another article from the Post.

Even as the relationship between Barber and Johnson was at its very beginning, Johnson was being discouraged. Reportedly while she was an intern at the Today show, her boss got wind of lunches between the two and reportedly told her that since she was only an intern she shouldn’t been seen in public having lunch with Barber.

The only effect of this warning was for the two to make their relationship more secret. As their relationship built, the one between Tiki and Ginny deteriorated to the point that a divorce was filed while Ginny was eight months pregnant.

Barber and Johnson have said very little about their relationship. Most of the information about the two is from sources close to the couple. With the relationship costing Barber his job with NBC, it is not a surprise that he would not want to add more details to a relationship that the public at large seems to disapprove of.

For Tiki to find himself back in the public’s favor, he’s going to have to do a lot of work, and hope that his wife doesn’t take any steps that could cause him to be less employable.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

When a couple feels it is time to get a divorce, there is often a difficult decision to be reached, either by the couple or a court, on how to split the custody of the children. Add in the fact that the children are curious experimental teenagers and business travel, and the parents can be left in a tough spot.

This difficult area was discussed recently in an article from the Wall Street Journal.

The article starts out by giving a powerful example of the destructive power of a teenager, and social networking. An 18 year old boy, while his parents where in Europe, used Facebook and text message to invite a large amount of friends over—about 100 showed up.

The party, described as a “rager”, ended up costing an estimated $45,000 in damage to the house.

The mother was at a loss at what to do. Her ex-husband travels often and leaves the house available to their son when he is gone on business.

The way for the children to be safe without villainizing one of the parents, according to the Journal, is for the former couple to work together in the best interest of the children. Adolescents are too impulsive and vulnerable to be left with the freedom of an unsupervised house.

A clinical psychologist and an expert on children and divorce, JoAnne Pedro-Carroll agrees, stating that, “it is very risky for teens to [be] unsupervised for long periods” of time. Teens need a limits, and surprisingly, according to Pedro-Carroll, they want limits.

Pedro-Carroll believes that the best way to handle the example of the teen throwing a “rager” is to readdress the agreement with the father. When teens have a single agreement from the parents on how to act and what their limits are, then they respond better. The difference in freedom from the parents in a divorce can be very detrimental to the teenagers when they are in such a fragile portion in their lives.

Working together can be difficult for the parents. After all, there is a reason they got divorced.

What kind of an example does it set for the children if the parents can’t find common ground on how to raise the children. When the parents have different views on how to raise the children and are unable to reconcile their views, the children are left unsure what is the correct way to act.

It may be a nightmare situation to come home to $45,000 worth of damage done by your teenage children, but if you and your ex cannot work out an agreement on your children’s boundaries, then it could become an unpleasant reality. And at least for the Massachusetts family that started the article, it is a nightmare that they cannot wake from.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

Divorce, in the public perception, is rarely a friendly undertaking. Even on this blog we often follow stories of contentious celebrity divorces and separations that don’t end well, with the theme usually being that couples are rarely on their best behavior when it comes time for a divorce.

An article from USA Today, however, makes the claim that divorce is getting friendlier for a lot of couples.

The article offers a couple of quick examples of what it sees as a potentially growing trend of divorces that are less contentious than perhaps they have been in the past. One dad, John Jarvis, of Phoenix, stays in his ex-wife’s guest room when he visits their 13-year-old daughter. Another divorcé, Bob Murphy of Chandler, Arizona, offered his ex-wife a key to his house.

One possible explanation for this trend in nicer divorces could be that those who watched a generation of nasty divorces wanted to change the pattern and avoid falling into the same traps. These people either saw their own parents divorce, or saw the negative impact that it had on their friends.

Hence a new approach to divorce, with less fighting and more conflict resolution. This new model can place increasing emphasis on mediation, collaboration or even, USA Today, reports, do-it-yourself kits for divorce.

Friendlier divorces are even taking hold when there are children involved in the divorce. A more amicable divorce can be a lot easier on children who are caught in the middle.

Not to mention the fact that a friendly divorce can save couples a lot of money and emotional stress. The typical mediated divorce costs around $1,000, according to family lawyer John Zarzynski, who co-founded Agreement House. The typical traditional divorce, with lawyers and court appearances, financial negotiations and custody battles, can cost $15-25,000 and take years.

The traditional divorce is still the most prevalent form. Some say that the process inherently causes divorcing couples to feel that they must go into battle with their ex. Disagreements about custody, child support, property and finances can create a sense of opposition to an ex, rather than fostering cooperation for the sake of themselves or their children.

“It makes it almost impossible to have a civil relationship going forward,” said Zarzynski. “You don’t forget what it’s like to be cross-examined by your spouse’s lawyer. It sets them up for years and years of not being able to communicate well.”

Mediation is one option when it comes to the friendly divorce, and collaboration is another. With these options, the court is not directly involved. While there might be lawyers involved, so are subject experts, and all work together to come up with a solution that meets everybody’s needs. Supporters of these techniques argue that the newly shaped families start off on a more stable foot.

There aren’t solid numbers on how many mediation and collaboration divorces are out there, but anecdotally, Zarzynksi has seen the number of mediation and collaboration divorces he’s worked on per year rise from roughly a dozen to 75 in recent years.

Bob Murphy, having seen his brothers go through nasty divorces, wanted no part of that. Instead of a divorce that took years, his took hours.

And while John Jarvis said his arrangement to stay at his ex-wife’s house might sound a little odd, he gets to spend more time with his daughter, and the couple hasn’t had to cut ties with each other’s family and friends.

Divorce doesn’t often lead to friendships, but the trend in mediated and collaborated divorces could mean that break-ups have a slightly brighter future.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

Las Vegas is a city known for quick marriages, but Nevada’s governor, Gov. Jim Gibbons, recently finalized his divorce from wife Dawn when a family court judge in Reno, Nevada, signed the divorce decree.

According to the Associated Press, the first family of Nevada has officially split.

The Gibbons’s divorce marks the first time in the state’s history that a sitting governor has gotten a divorce. That’s not the only first, however. Gibbons was also the first incumbent governor to lose a party primary. Gibbons lost the Republican primary a month ago, to a former federal judge, and so he won’t be returning to the governor’s role.

The divorce between Jim Gibbons and ex-wife Dawn was not an extremely amicable one. They had reached a tentative divorce settlement in December, the AP article says, but even since then they raised disputes about details in the case.

The couple still had some things to work out, but Judge Frances Doherty was confident that the pair’s lawyers could settle those outstanding matters among themselves. Such items that were still in dispute include political memorabilia, some as objects signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Dawn Gibbons was emotional after the trial, appearing in tears after she left the courtroom. She declined comment, but her lawyer, Cal Dunlap, spoke on her behalf, saying, “she’s officially divorced.”

Governor Gibbons after the court appearance said, “Nobody is happy about today. The only thing that pleases me is that I can stop paying attorney fees.”

This divorce has not been without its dramatic turns and salvos lobbed back and forth. Gov. Gibbons, for his part, filed for the divorce in 2008, comparing his wife in one court document to an “enraged ferret in a phone booth.”

Dawn Gibbons, on the other hand, claimed that Jim was having affairs with the estranged wife of a doctor in Reno, and with a Playboy model. Gov. Gibbons denied these allegations.

According to the divorce settlement that was reached recently, Gov. Gibbons will have to pay 25 percent of his gross income in alimony to Dawn. That’s around $4,000 per month through the end of his term as governor, which will come later this year.

The pair already sold their home in Reno, and will sell 40 acres of land in Lamoille, Nevada.

The political memorabilia mentioned above include some correspondence from President Reagan, and 10 White House Christmas cards from both the Clinton administration and the Bush administration.

The governor claims that he already gave away the Christmas cards to big-time campaign contributors. The judge, then, told him to give Dawn the names of those that he gave them to. She described them as “framed paintings” depicting White House Christmas scenes.

“I would love to have my half of those,” she told the AP.

The governor, on the other hand, claimed that there were no paintings. “They are just poster,” he said. “Lithographs. They are not thousands and thousands of dollars.” He said that all of his political memorabilia was in storage. “She can have what’s in the warehouse,” he said in court.

There is little else to determine in the case. “If we are down to this last issue, I think we can all feel pretty good about what you have done here,” the judge told the participants.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.

The recent announcement that Kelsey Grammer and his wife Camille are divorcing has been big news. What’s an even bigger story is the fact that the multi-millionaire Grammer did not have a prenuptial agreement.

A recent article on a pop-culture website gives us a list of the top ten celebrities that didn’t have a prenup when they needed it most. Here is a sampling from the list of famous and most expensive divorces without a prenup.

When Mel Gibson got divorced after 28 years of marriage, he was forced to give up a full 50 percent of the money he earned over the course of their marriage.The result? A whooping $900 million was divided between the two, leaving his ex-wife Robyn with $450 million.

Another major notable divorce was the dream couple Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe. Both are household names, but at the time of their divorce, Reese Witherspoon was making approximately 8 times per movie what her husband earned, $20 million a picture versus $2.5 million. Their lack of a prenup caused Witherspoon to split the savings fifty-fifty.

A prenup-lacking divorce that could have ended up costing the main bread winner a lot more than it did was the Madonna-Guy Ritchie divorce. Despite the fact that Madonna was worth an estimated $500 million, and the fact that she didn’t have a prenup, she should consider herself lucky that she was able to settle for a rumored $76-to-$92 million divorce settlement.

One couple that isn’t divorced, but is still lacking a prenup, is Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. Ellen was quoted stating her opinion that prenups are unromantic, and that this was the reason that, despite her $63 million net worth, she does not have one. Giving away half of her multi-million dollar fortune would, however, probably also not sit well with the actress and talk show host.

In 1990, Roseanne Barr’s attorney suggested that she get a prenup with her soon-to-be husband Tom Arnold. Roseanne’s attorney was fired. Four years later the two divorced and Tom Arnold walked away with $50 million, probably to her lawyer’s satisfaction.

The near-divorce between Larry King and his eighth wife almost went down as one of the largest of all time. Larry King allegedly cheated on his wife with her sister, and, lacking a prenup, a divorce could have cost him over $70 million. Fortunately for King, and his financial portfolio, he was able to reunite the marriage.

There seems to be no end to the list of famous people who have decided to let the local and state laws split their assets during a divorce. Prenuptial agreements are, if nothing else, a great tool to keep things predictable. But for every prepared couple, there will be a Rosanne and Ellen ready to ignore the common sense of a prenup for what they deem to be a more romantic route.

Copyright © 2010 TotalDivorce, LLC. (as licensee). All rights reserved.