Celebrities who can't consider that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are still embroiled in a bitter divorce battle nearly eight years after their split will likely be reminded of one other ugly, drawn-out divorce battle in Hollywood that also involved a dispute over child custody.
Halle Berry and her ex-husband Olivier Martinez were back in court this week – nine years after announcing their divorce and a 12 months after seemingly settling their differences by reaching a joint custody and child support arrangement for his or her now 10-year-old son Matteo. reported the New York Post.
Berry, 57, has filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming the 58-year-old French actor violated the terms of their co-parenting agreement by allegedly “taking the summer off.” Instead of completing the agreed-upon therapy sessions, Martinez decided to travel to France in July and hang around along with his brother in Los Angeles, Berry said in court documents.
Berry's legal team stated that “co-parenting therapy was supposed to begin immediately and the agreed-upon six joint sessions were supposed to be completed by June 14, 2024. Today is July 26, 2024 and they haven't even started yet.”
Berry claimed that “Olivier has practically unilaterally decided to 'take the summer off,'” declaring that each one co-parenting sessions are happening over Zoom. The Oscar winner said she has “tried everything to build a better relationship with Olivier as co-parents,” but “instead of support, she is met with resistance and conflict.”
Berry and Martinez were married from 2013 to 2016. When they announced their separation in 2015, they said they made the choice with “a heavy heart.” reported the Los Angeles Times.
“We move forward with love and respect for one another and focus together on what is best for our son,” the couple said on the time.
But those friendly feelings didn't last – a pattern all too familiar to Berry, who has an extended, sad history of turbulent relationships.
In the Nineties, Berry said, she had an abusive relationship with a “well-known” Hollywood star. In 1991, in the course of the filming of “The Last Boy Scout,” he beat her so badly that she suffered everlasting hearing damage in a single ear. People reported. Berry too has uncovered that she grew up watching her mother being recurrently beaten by her father before her parents divorced when she was 4 years old.
Berry's first husband, from 1993 to 1997, was baseball star David Justice. She then married singer-songwriter Eric Benét in 2001, but in the course of the first 12 months of their four-year marriage he was undergoing treatment for sex addiction.
Berry's next partner from 2005 to 2010 was French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry, with whom she has Nahla, now 16. But when the 2 separated and custody of their daughter was at stake, things got ugly between them.
In 2010, the “Monster's Ball” star began dating Martinez, whom she met while filming “Dark Tide” in South Africa. She desired to move to Martinez's home country of France to marry him and provides her daughter “a quieter life away from the pressures of Hollywood.” People have reported.
But a judge denied their request to take Nahla away from her father in November 2012. About two weeks after the judge's decision, Aubry and Martinez got into an argument at Berry's Los Angeles home. While each men accused one another of throwing the primary punch, Aubry specifically said Martinez threatened to kill him if he didn't allow him and Berry to take Nahla with them after they moved to France. TMZ reported on the time.
Berry and Aubry then “mutually” agreed on custody, the actor's lawyers said. However, details of the agreement weren’t made public. E!News reported. A 2014 court ruling required Berry to pay Aubry $16,000 a month in child support, plus $115,000 in back payments and $300,000 for Aubry's legal fees. ABC News reported this.
It was only in May that Berry and Martinez agreed to a brand new co-parenting agreement that included therapy sessions to “resolve disputes and conflicts between them in order to achieve successful co-parenting” of their son, court documents show. by Page Six.
Both parents agreed to attend two individual sessions and not less than six joint co-parenting sessions, the documents say, in response to Page Six.
But Berry now claims Martinez violated that therapy agreement “with reckless disregard,” the Post reported.
“To him, the terms of the parties' agreed-upon court orders are merely suggestions that he can follow when it suits him and ignore when it does not fit his alienation agenda,” the brand new court documents say.
“Olivier's conduct is damaging to the parties' son,” Berry alleged within the criticism, adding that it also “further harms the parties' already strained relationship.”
The Emmy winner asked a judge to force Martinez to follow the therapy plan, however the “Unfaithful” actor hit back, claiming his ex-wife “knew” he wouldn't have the option to attend therapy sessions this summer because he was traveling.
In Martinez's response, which was received by InTouchWeekly, He said Berry “continually attempted to bully and coerce the defendant (Martinez) by using her wealth and the legal experts at her disposal to 'force' him into submission.”
Originally published:
image credit : www.mercurynews.com