Family Law

Dennis Hopper?s Divorce Continues after his Death

By ckramer

When actor Dennis Hopper died last week of prostate cancer, he left behind not only a legacy as an actor, but a bitter divorce with his fifth wife, Victoria.

After Hopper was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he made a difficult decision to file for divorce from his wife.

The New York Times reported that Hopper filed for divorce from his fifth wife with a release saying ?I wish Victoria the best but only want to spend these difficult days surrounded by my children and close friends.?

An article from early February from Time Magazine describes the difficult decision made by a dying spouse to seek a divorce by profiling the decisions of Hopper and Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of the famous North Carolina senator and former presidential hopeful John Edwards.

The article explains that bad health news in a marriage often pushes the marriage to one of the extremes: either the happy marriage draws closer together or the flailing marriage is forced farther apart. As a result of this polarization, so-called deathbed divorce is not as uncommon as many think. Wynne Whitman, an estate-planning lawyer interviewed for the Time article, says that “A spouse is pretty much the only person you can?t cut out of a will.”

The article also has several tips about what steps to take if you find yourself with a grim prognosis. If you are estranged from your spouse, then divorce is important to make sure your inheritance goes where you want it to.

One tip which seems especially easy to overlook is your life insurance policy. It can be easy to overlook changing the benefactor of a life insurance policy after a divorce or separation, but as the article points out, ?you don?t want the spouse from three spouses ago getting the life insurance.?

Certainty child custody is another reason that a sick partner may want to file for divorce. This would make sure that the custody is settled if the surviving partner is an unfit parent.

The Time article cites Jennifer Smetters, a Chicago family-law attorney, in saying that divorce while dying can be very trying on the child. Smetters emphasizes the grief and stress that this can put on a child that is already dealing with an incredibly difficult situation. Smetters also points out that the difficulties of a divorce can be hard for a seriously sick individual to navigate in their condition.

Typically in deathbed divorces, it is typically the healthy spouse who wants out. The article also states that it is more commonly men that are guilty of being the abandoning partner.

A study cited states that approximately 1.6% of male cancer patients got divorced while nearly 3% of female cancer patients did. Yet despite these figures, the article states that the divorce rate for cancer patients is nearly identical to that of the general population. This may give more evidence that a bad prognosis doesn?t change the course of marriage, instead just strengthening where it was going anyway.

Full post as published by The Divorce Blog on June 03, 2010 (boomark / email).