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Bijou Phillips has filed for divorce from Danny Masterson, lower than two weeks after the That ’70s Present star was sentenced to 30 years to life in jail for rape.
The couple had been collectively for almost 12 years and share a nine-year-old daughter, Fianna.
Phillips, a 43-year-old actor, filed for divorce in Santa Barbara, Calif., Superior Court docket on Monday, citing “irreconcilable variations.” She is searching for spousal help and full custody of Fianna whereas Masterson, 47, is given visitation rights.
“Ms. Phillips has determined to file for divorce from her husband throughout this unlucky time. Her precedence stays along with her daughter,” her lawyer Peter A. Lauzon acknowledged. “This era has been unimaginably arduous on the wedding and the household.”
Lauzon added that Phillips considers Masterson “a beautiful father to their daughter,” echoing statements Phillips wrote in a letter asking for leniency in Masterson’s sentencing.
“We want him greater than you may think about,” Phillips wrote within the letter that grew to become public after the sentencing. “I do know he has been convicted of great crimes. However the man I married has solely been a rare husband to me and a loyal father to our daughter.”
Phillips additional wrote that Masterson “has actually been a life-saving accomplice to me,” in obvious reference to Masterson’s look after her and their daughter after Phillips had a kidney transplant in 2017.
“Our daughter and I are heartbroken that he’s not house with us,” she wrote.
Phillips sat with different Masterson members of the family in court docket all through two lengthy trials, the primary of which led to a mistrial, the second of which led to a conviction on two of three rape counts from 2003.
She wept in court docket when the responsible verdicts have been learn on Could 31, and confirmed related emotion at instances throughout his Sept. 7 sentencing listening to, when a decide gave Masterson a jail time period that may require him to be held for 25-and-a-half years earlier than he’s eligible for parole.
A supply advised People who Phillips was shocked that Masterson was discovered responsible.
“She wasn’t ready for the decision. She by no means anticipated him to be discovered responsible,” the unnamed insider mentioned. “She couldn’t imagine that he was taken into custody straight away and remanded.”
Masterson maintains his innocence and his legal professionals have mentioned they plan to enchantment, contending there have been issues with proof and constitutional points together with his conviction.
Masterson was arrested in 2020 after a three-year investigation into claims he sexually assaulted a number of ladies within the early 2000s.
He was convicted of raping two ladies he knew via the Church of Scientology in 2003. Each testified that he put medication of their drinks and violently raped them. Jurors couldn’t attain a unanimous verdict on a 3rd rely alleging he raped a former girlfriend in 2001.
Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace within the Fox sitcom That ’70s Present from 1998 till 2006. Kutcher and Kunis each confronted backlash after it was revealed they’d written letters to the decide in Masterson’s case, asking for leniency in his sentencing. The pair apologized for the letters in a video.
Phillips and Masterson started courting in 2004. They introduced their engagement in 2009 and married in Eire in 2011.
Phillips is the daughter of The Mamas and the Papas singer-songwriter John Phillips and actor Genevieve Waite. She labored as a mannequin as an adolescent and launched an album earlier than shifting into appearing.
She has appeared in movies together with Nearly Well-known and tv reveals together with Elevating Hopes and Legislation & Order: Particular Victims Unit.
— With recordsdata from The Related Press
© 2023 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
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