Recently in Alimony Category

If you were to hand-pick two celebrities perfect for marriage, you probably couldn’t come up with a better pairing than alt-pin-up Zooey Deschanel and Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard.

But proving that what seems right on paper will not necessarily work out in reality, the New Girl star officially filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences, and now it has been revealed just how much money may be at stake in the divorce, reports the Daily Mail.

When you get divorced, you and your former spouse will split your assets. You will retain your non-marital assets (e.g., assets you acquired before marriage), and a court will decide how the marital assets will be divided (e.g., assets you acquired during marriage).

But even after dividing your property, you or your spouse may still need continuing monetary support. For example, alimony in Illinois provides for former spouses who may have given up a career to raise a family, and now need some support while they sharpen their skills and reenter the workforce.

Former New York Giants football star Tiki Barber, who allegedly had an affair with a 24-year-old NBC intern while his wife was pregnant with their twin daughters, might be too broke to pay for the proposed settlement with estranged wife Ginny Barber, according to the New York Post.  

Perhaps it's a case of instant karma, but NBC recently terminated the former football star's $300,000-per-year contract as a "Today Show" correspondent. NBC said the decision was made before his alleged infidelity became public, but Today Show tends to appeal to viewers who would be more critical of a correspondent with questionable ethics.

Regardless, Ginny Barber is seeking $150,000 per month in alimony (also called spousal support).

The estimated $500 million to $600 million Tiger Woods may have to pay to estranged wife Elin Nordegren Woods to settle the impending Tiger Woods divorce, as reported by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker, certainly is a lot of cash. Worded another way, that's a half-billion dollars in alimony. 

But not only is golfing superstar Tiger Woods fabulously wealthy, with an estimated net worth in the $1 billion range, his alleged infidelity was so egregious that he may not have much legal leverage on his side.

At the risk of judging Tiger Woods in the court of public opinion, the sheer number of arguably shady women claiming to have slept with him and the release of text messages to mistresses detailing his preference for violent sex certainly won't help his case.

Illinois law does not require proof of fault before a divorce is granted, so long as the couple lived apart for two years and claims "irreconcilable differences," but divorce can happen much sooner if one party is able to prove the other was abusive, or otherwise at fault.

Since an abusive partner is a danger to his or her spouse, divorce attorneys in Chicago would say that the marriage should be dissolved as soon as possible.

Along those lines, the entertainment blog Popeater reported on actor Dennis Hopper's allegation that estranged wife Victoria Duffy "was trying to kill him." In fact, court papers cited in the article claim a pattern of abuse by Ms. Duffy extending beyond the couple's relationship.

Eighty percent of custodial parents are women and custodial mothers are twice as likely to live at or below the poverty line as custodial fathers, according to a report by the Center for American Progress entitled "The Straight Facts on Women in Poverty" (PDF).

Also, the standard 50/50 splitting of assets often leaves women broke for a number of reasons, according to certified financial divorce practitioner Carol Ann Wilson. Her article entitled "How to Help Older Divorcing Women Avoid the Bag Lady Blues" appears at the Encyclopedia Britannica's web site.

She explains how even the most highly polished divorce attorneys in Chicago sometimes overlook how the husband's career assets, such as health insurance and sick pay, impact finances:

Divorced women are swelling the poverty rolls. Why? The courts are trying to split the marital property 50/50, yet they traditionally overlook one major asset of a marriage: the husband's career.