Total Divorce Blog

The news keeps getting worse for pop singer Britney Spears. Earlier today, a California court ordered the pop singer to give up custody of her two children to ex-husband Kevin Federline, effective this Wednesday at noon. Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon ruled that Federline retain custody of the couple’s two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden, “until further order of the court.” The dysfunctional couple had been engaged in a bitter custody battle, with Federline recently asking for 70-30 custody in his favor after the couple had earlier agreed to a 50-50 split. It is unknown what caused Gordon to award Federline full custody, and a transcript of the court proceedings was ordered sealed. Spears and Federline were married for two years before finalizing their divorce this past July.

Last month, Gordon ordered Spears to spend eight hours per week with a “parenting coach” and to take drugs tests twice a week after it became known that she frequently used unspecified drugs. Federline and Spears were also both ordered to avoid alcohol or any non-prescription drugs 12 hours before taking custody of the children, to refrain from any “derogatory remarks” about each other during the case, and to undergo “joint co-parenting counseling.”

The last couple of months have been pretty embarrassing for Spears. Her career is going nowhere as evident by her shaky, lackadaisical and disturbing performance at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 9th. Spears’ former divorce lawyer resigned last month, and her management company recently quit after a month of representation. And now a judge feels that Federline would be a better influence on the couple’s children. Who would have thought it could get this bad for Spears!

That was quick!  On July 16th we reported that Omar Bin Laden, son of Osama Bin Laden, had married 51-year-old grandmother, Jane Felix-Brown.

Well, now the couple have announced that they have divorced.  This was the 6th divorce for Jane Felix-Browne.  It seems as though this was the first divorce for Omar, although Jane was his second wife.  He is still married to his first wife.

Jane Felix-Browne announced that she asked Bin Laden to divorce her after learning that there had been death threats against him by people who objected to him marrying a British woman.  She said that they hope to remarry in the Spring.

Feliz-Browne has had a letter delivered by her son to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.  The letter explains the circumstances of the divorce and asks for permission for the couple to remarry.

A strange new document was signed by the judge today in the Britney Spears and Kevin Federline divorce case.

TMZ has obtained a copy of the document, which appears to be a stipulated agreement, granting Kevin Federline $20,000 per month in spousal support from Britney Spears for an indefinite period of time, beginning on November 1, 2006.  According to the court order, Kevin Federline will receive the support payments from Britney Spears until he gets married again, one of them dies or further order of the court.

Is Britney paying him to back off of the custody battle?  According to the TMZ report, no.

According to the pre-nuptial agreement between Spears and Federline, he is only entitled to receive the spousal support through November, 2007.  Sources say that the pre-nup still stands and that this document was filed for technical tax reasons.

Still, a court order is a court order and on the face of it, it appears that Britney has agreed to pay spousal support to K-Fed for a while longer than their original agreement.

Stay tuned to see what happens next in this bizarre celebrity divorce case that just refuses to go away.

Former Miami Mayor Joe Carollo added some more color to his already colorful history at the end of August when he was involved in a fender-bender with who else but the judge that had been presiding over his ongoing divorce. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Paul Siegel drove into an intersection and collided with Carollo’s vehicle on Wednesday, August 29th. Siegel was cited for failing to yield at the intersection, where there was a stop sign. Prior to this incident, Siegel had been cited twice in the past for infractions, including recklessly operating a boat in 2002 and failing to adhere to a manatee speed zone in 2006. Both of those citations were dismissed. Following the car accident, Siegel removed himself from the divorce case between Carollo and his wife. Both sides have not yet come to an agreement in their divorce, which amazingly began in 2000.

In addition to being involved in a long divorce, Carollo has been in the news in the past for some rather eye-catching headlines. After losing to Xavier Suarez in a bitter race for mayor in 1997, Carollo was installed as mayor in 1998 when it became known that absentee ballots in favor of Suarez had been tainted. Carollo and Suarez both ran for mayor in 2000, but lost to current Mayor Manny Diaz. Carollo was also accused of battering his wife that year when he allegedly threw a cardboard tea container at her face; however, that charge was later dropped. Carollo added another chapter to his intriguing life when he filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2003.

World renowned golfer Greg Norman agreed in a Florida courthouse to settle his divorce with his wife of 25 years. He will pay his wife Laura $600 million (Australian).

The divorce case had turned nasty in the last couple of months, with Laura accusing Greg of cutting of her credit cards and changing the locks on their home.

The Herald Sun, of Australia, reported that Laura left the courtroom distraught ,while Greg was very happy. He said he was “going and having a cold beer, to tell you the truth.” Hours later Norman sat with his girlfriend watching an evening U.S. Open tennis match in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Laura’s lawyer said she saddened to see the end of her marriage.

Shaquille O’Neal has filed for divorce from his wife, Shaunie.  The couple have been married for nearly five years.  Shaq’s divorce petition says that the relationship is “irretrievably broken”.

Shaq and Shaunie have four children together and each have a child from previous relationships.

The O’Neals live in Miami, where Shaq plays basketball for the Miami Heat.  Their home is currently for sale at an asking price of $32 million.  Shaq’s divorce petition refers to the mansion as the former marital home.

The divorce petition filed by Shaq’s attorneys also says that the couple have a ”Cohabitation/Prenuptial Agreement and Acknowledgment of Property Disclosure and Waiver of Further Disclosure”, and that they will be asking the court to seal their documents.

A child custody dispute between Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston is brewing over their 14 year old daughter, Bobbi Kristina.

Bobby Brown claims that he has been unable to see his daughter since the couple divorced in December and Whitney Houston was given full custody.

Brown went so far as to ask the court to throw out the divorce judgement that ended the couple’s stormy marriage in December.  Houston’s attorneys says it just doesn’t work that way.  They say Brown can contest the custody arrangement or make arrangements to visit his daughter, but he can’t have a divorce judgement dismissed.

The judge in the case has ordered Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston to return to court in October to argue their cases.  She will then decide on the custody issues.

On August 7, Jermaine Jackson appeared in court because his estranged wife had filed court papers saying that while Jackson claims he does not have any money or income,  that is simply not the case.

Her petition also stated that she had concerns about the children’s sleeping arrangments when they are in Jackson’s care, stating that she believes that they sleep in the same room with Jackson and his girlfriend during their time with him.

Alejandra Jackson said in her court papers that she is not receiving any financial support from Jermaine Jackson for herself or her children. As a result she says she drives on an expired registration, is unable to make her car payment and has to borrow money for gas.

Jackson’s estranged wife also claims that he does have money that he made from the UK version of the television show “Big Brother”. She also, with some sarcasm, alluded that Jackson may be transferring his money and assets to his girlfriend to avoid making support payments.

The judge decided to let Jermaine off the hook, for now. On August 7 he was not ordered to start paying child or spousal support. The judge was unable to verify his income, or lack thereof, so they will return to court on September 24 to revisit the issue.

Jackson’s mother was ordered to continue paying the children’s expenses and she must also continue to let Alejandra and the children live in her home for free.

Jermaine Jackson filed for divorce from Alejandra in 2004.

Well, we knew this wouldn’t take long given the recent antics and seemingly unstable mental state of Britney Spears that is being portrayed in the media.

With the ink on the final divorce decree barely dry, today Kevin Federline has officially asked the court to award him more custody of his two sons with Britney Spears.  The documents are sealed, so it is not certain what he is asking the court to do.  The current arrangement is a 50/50 custody split between Federline and Spears. 

We will post more information on this custody battle when it becomes available.

Well, it’s official.  Britney Spears and Kevin Federline are divorced.

The decree finalizing the divorce was signed by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge today.

The only thing that seems unusual about this celebrity divorce is that the judge granted a request by Britney Spears’ attorney to seal some of the documents relating to the case.  Spears’ attorney said that she feared that if certain details were released to the public that it could possibly put the couple’s two young children at risk.  Good for her for thinking of the kids!

You may recall a post here a couple of days ago, in which I said that divorce documents are not usually sealed.  The judge in this case must have agreed with Spears’ attorney and honestly have felt that the children could have been in danger if all of the information was available to the public. 

With the media craze that constantly surrounds Spears, it is probably best that the documents are sealed to give this troubled celebrity and her children a shred of privacy.