Danny DeVito, 67, and wife Rhea Perlman, 64, shocked Hollywood when they
announced their split after 30 years of marriage.
Sources now report that the couple had been on the rocks for years, due
to DeVito’s flirting and womanizing tendencies. According to sources,
Perlman who starred as Carla the barmaid in the long-running 1980s TV sitcom
Cheers, had enough of her husband’s bad boy ways and wanted to end her marriage.
The pair worked together on the 70s sitcom
Taxi and later in the 1996 film
Matilda, have three children together, Lucy Chet, Grace Fan, and Jacob Daniel.
Their reps have confirmed the couple’s split, however, no reports of
infidelity have surfaced.
In Ontario, if a couple wants to get a divorce, there needs to be grounds
for divorce. In Canada, there are three grounds for a divorce:
- adultery,
- cruelty, and
- separation.
Adultery is when one spouse has an affair. In the case of Danny and Rhea, flirting would
not be considered an affair. Furthermore, adultery is difficult to prove because
section 10 of the Ontario
Evidence Act states that no witness should be asked or bound to answer any question
that may show that he/she is guilty of adultery.
The second ground is cruelty.
Cruelty is when one spouse treats the other spouse with extreme actions
and behaviour, such that the spouses are no longer able to live together. The cruelty
must be severe and there must be intent to cause harm.
The third ground and the most commonly used ground for divorce in Canada
is separation.
Separation is when the parties live separate and apart for at least one year. Again, separation is the most common ground to use as cruelty and adultery
are hard to prove.
As reports have indicated, DeVito and Perlman have been rocky for about
ten years, maybe the split is for the better? If they have been living
separate and apart from each other in advance of the time when their marital
discord was made public, and if they were residents of Ontario, approaching
the divorce with separation as the grounds would be most appropriate.
In the end, Perlman has dispatched DeVito-in a taxi, or other transportation.