Kim Kardashian urges quick divorce from Kanye

LOS ANGELES - Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has urged a US court to expedite her divorce, saying it would help husband Ye to accept the relationship is over.

Kardashian filed for divorce last year after months of press reports about marital strife and as the rapper formerly known as Kanye West battled with mental health issues.

Ye has very publicly fought the separation, including with social media posts imploring Kardashian to reconcile.

"I very much desire to be divorced," Kardashian wrote in a declaration filed to a Los Angeles court on Wednesday.

"I have asked Kanye to keep our divorce private, but he has not done so.

"I believe that the court terminating our marital status will help Kanye to accept that our marital relationship is over and to move forward on a better path which will assist us in peacefully co-parenting our children."

The couple have four children: eight-year-old daughter North, son Saint, six, daughter Chicago, four, and two-year-old son Psalm.

The pair, who began dating in 2012 and married in a lavish ceremony in Italy two years later, rapidly became one of the world's most instantly recognizable couples.

But their union ran into trouble with reports of bizarre outbursts from Ye, who suffers from bipolar disorder.

"While I wish our marriage would have succeeded, I have come to the realization that there is no way to repair our marriage," Kardashian wrote in the filing.

"Kanye does not agree but at least it appears that he has come to the realization that I want to end our marriage, even if he does not."

Agence France Presse

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver are finally divorced

LOS ANGELES, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have officially finalized their divorce, more than 10 years after proceedings began.

Court documents filed on Tuesday showed that a final settlement had been reached between the "Terminator" star and the US journalist, formally ending their 35 year marriage.

The terms of the divorce settlement were not made public.

Shriver, the niece of slain US President John F. Kennedy, filed for divorce in 2011 after Schwarzenegger ended his term as California Governor and admitted fathering a child with the couple's housekeeper some 14 years previously.

Schwarzenegger and Shriver married in 1986 and had four children together

Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Giles Elgood

-reuters

Singers Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale to divorce: reports

LOS ANGELES | Singer Gwen Stefani has filed for divorce from rockstar husband Gavin Rossdale after 13 years of marriage, several news reports said on Monday.

In her divorce petition, Stefani, 45, cited irreconcilable differences and asked for joint custody of the couple’s three children, 9-year-old Kingston, 6-year-old Zuma and 1-year-old Apollo, celebrity websites TMZ and People.com said.

Rossdale, 49, filed his response at the same time and also asked for joint custody, TMZ reported.

Neither Stefani nor Rossdale’s attorneys immediately responded to emails seeking comment.

The couple has been together for about two decades, meeting when Stefani’s band No Doubt toured with Rossdale’s band Bush in 1995, People.com reported. They dated for six years before they wed in 2002.

“While the two of us have come to the mutual decision that we will no longer be partners in marriage, we remain partners in parenthood and are committed to jointly raising our three sons in a happy and healthy environment,” the couple told the website in a statement.

source: interaksyon.com

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch seals 'amicable' divorce from third wife

NEW YORK CITY - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his estranged third wife Wendi Deng have agreed on an "amicable" divorce settlement, the couple announced in New York Wednesday.

Murdoch, 82, and Deng, 44, issued the statement after attending a brief hearing before New York judge Ellen Gesmer.

The couple, who were married in 1999, made no comment after the 10-minute hearing, and the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

"We are pleased to announce that we have reached an amicable settlement of all matters relating to our divorce," the statement said.

"We move forward with mutual respect and a shared interest in the health and happiness of our two daughters. We will not comment on this any further."

The couple has 60 days to implement the settlement before the divorce is final, US media reports said.

"I am glad you've been able to resolve these matters amicably," Judge Gesmer was quoted as saying in US media reports.

"Good luck to both of you."

Murdoch had filed for divorce in June, saying his marriage with Deng, nearly 40 years his junior, was "irretrievably broken."

The couple have two daughters, Grace Helen, 12, and Chloe, 10.

Several US media reports said that as part of the settlement Deng would keep her luxury apartment on 5th Avenue in New York, valued at $44 million.

The couple had signed a pre-nuptial agreement ensuring that Murdoch's grip on his media empire would not be affected by any possible break-up.

The Australian-American tycoon's media empire was split into two in June: News Corp, for print media, and 21st Century Fox, for television and cinema.

Deng and the couple's two daughters have no voting rights in the company, in contrast to Murdoch's four other children from his two previous marriages.

Murdoch, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes at around $13.4 billion, owns some of the most famous newspaper titles in the world, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and British dailies The Times and The Sun.

His British newspaper arm was embroiled in a phone-hacking scandal which erupted in 2011, ultimately leading to the closure of Sunday tabloid The News of the World.

Deng met Murdoch while she worked at his Star Television company in Hong Kong, where former colleagues have described her as an expert networker with big ambitions.

Born in the eastern Chinese city of Xuzhou in 1968 -- at the height of the Cultural Revolution -- she left China at 19 to study in the United States. She graduated from the Yale School of Management in 1996.

Last year, she famously leapt out of her seat to counter-attack a protester who hit Murdoch with a cream pie during testimony before a British parliamentary committee over the hacking of cellphone voice mails by his now-defunct News of the World tabloid.

source: interaksyon.com

Divorce just as much a hurdle as marriage for US gays

WASHINGTON - It's hard enough for same-sex couples to marry in the United States, but divorce is a headache as well, and one that supporters of gay marriage hope the US Supreme Court can resolve.

"Divorce is the new frontier for gay couples," said Susan Sommer of Lambda Legal, a legal advice service for homosexuals. "They had to fight to be together, and they have to fight to get a divorce."

Like marriage, divorce laws are determined by each of the 50 states, only nine of which -- in addition to the federal capital Washington -- so far allow couples of the same sex to wed.

"If a couple is living in New York City... they can get a divorce in New York City," said Sommer, who is Lambda Legal's director of constitutional litigation and senior counsel.

But complications arise when couples relocate to a state where their marriage is not legally recognized, said Stuart Gaffney, media director of the lobbying group Marriage Equality USA.

Thus, a couple living in Utah, where gay marriage is not recognized, can marry in Massachusetts, where it is legal and where newlyweds are not obliged to live in the state.

If the couple returns to Utah and their marriage falls apart, however, they would have to go to another state to petition for a divorce -- which requires a period of residence of six months to two years, depending on the state.

There are also local particularities. In Wyoming, for instance, same-sex couples cannot marry but they can seek a divorce.

"It's a mess," Sommer told AFP.

A Marriage Equality USA activist who requested anonymity to speak freely said such a situation left her in a state of stress and uncertainty as to how to legally and financial separate from her partner, whom she married in Canada.

"It made for a very difficult, untenable situation," she said.

"Within less than a year, after several years of uncertainty, we made the decision to end the relationship and begin the process of a divorce. I was very fortunate to be able to get divorced.

"Unfortunately, other US citizens who get married in Canada, or in other locations where same-sex marriage is legalized, rarely have this right," she said. "They are left in perpetual legal limbo.

According to the Williams Institute, which conducts research on the gay community, one percent of same-sex marriages -- of which there were about 50,000 in 2011 -- end in divorce every year, half the proportion for heterosexuals.

But even happily married couples who live in a state that recognizes gay marriage have to face "nightmare" complications, with divorce being the ultimate problem, Gaffney said.

That's because, under the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government recognizes only straight marriages -- with hundreds of repercussions involving such areas as income tax and retirement benefits.

LGBT activists are thus eagerly awaiting how the US Supreme Court will rule on DOMA after its justices hear both sides of the legal argument on March 26-27.

"Non-gay couples are treated as what they are -- married -- no matter where they are living, traveling, or divorcing," said Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry, another group that campaigns for marriage equality.

"But gay couples experience a patchwork of respect, uncertainty and discrimination, depending on where they are," he said.

"That's why all couples should have -- the freedom to marry and divorce no matter where they live or find themselves."

source: interaksyon.com

Willa Ford and Husband to Divorce

Willa Ford and husband Mike Modano, who married in Athens, Texas, in 2007, are going their separate ways.

"It is with great sadness that after five years of marriage, Willa and Mike have decided to divorce," they tell PEOPLE in an exclusive joint statement through her rep. "They remain friends and wish each other success and happiness."

Ford, 31, and Modano, 42, who retired from the NHL's Detroit Red Wings last year after spending most of his hockey career with Dallas Stars, were together for more than four years before becoming engaged in 2006 and marrying the following year before 75 guests at a private ranch.

Ford, who competed on season 3 of Dancing with the Stars, currently appears in the Starz original drama Magic City.

source: people.com

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes eye settlement — reports

NEW YORK - Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were seeking ways to settle their divorce as the Hollywood stars entered the second week of a widely followed custody battle that has put their young daughter and the Church of Scientology in the media glare.


Celebrity website TMZ.com, citing an unnamed source, reported that Holmes, 33, and Cruise, 50, are negotiating visitation, child support and a property settlement. People magazine made similar claims and said the estranged couple wishes to avoid airing marital issues in court.

Attorneys for Cruise and Holmes did not return requests for comment on Sunday, but Holmes was photographed a day earlier entering her attorney's office in New York.

In a move that Cruise's spokeswoman said left the "Mission: Impossible" star "deeply saddened," Holmes filed divorce papers in New York in late June, ahead of last week's U.S. Independence Day holiday, citing irreconcilable differences.

According to her attorneys, Holmes is seeking sole custody of their 6-year-old daughter, Suri, and much speculation has surfaced that Holmes wants to raise the young girl outside the Church of Scientology, of which Cruise is a key member.

Cruise flew back to Los Angeles from a film shoot in Iceland early last week, and since then has remained publicly quiet about the divorce. His attorney, Los Angeles-based Bert Fields, has said Cruise wants to remain private.

Cruise and Holmes married in 2006 and have been enthusiastically followed by celebrity watchers, who dubbed the pair "TomKat." Holmes' divorce filing shocked their fans because their marriage seemed to be on solid ground. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com