It’s official folks…after months of what seemed to be an on-again-off-again
separation, Khloe Kardashian has officially filed for Divorce from husband
Lamar Odom.
We originally blogged about the
couple’s separation in August when Lamar’s drug problem was initially reported.
Over the last few months, however, it seemed that the couple may reconcile
and resolve their differences. Khloe admitted to the press that the spouses
were experiencing problems as a result of Lamar’s serious addiction
to crack.I It seemed as though Khloe was going to stick by Lamar in the
face of it all.
Now, TMZ is reporting that Khloe has filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable
differences as the reason for the separation. As reported in the link
above, there is little to fight over as a result of a hard-fought, ironclad
prenuptial agreement that lays out specifically how assets will be divided
upon separation. In Canada, prenups are called marriage contracts.
According to TMZ, the last straw for Khloe was the freestyle rap video
Lamar recently released on the internet, in which he boasts about cheating on her.
While it is unclear whether the couple’s prenuptial agreement deals with
spousal support, it is unlikely that either will have much of a claim on the other.
In Ontario, s.15.2 of the
Divorce Act dictates that the length the parties cohabited will factor into a spouse’s
claim for spousal support. While other factors such as the functions performed
by each spouse during cohabitation and any agreement between the parties
will play a role in determining each party’s obligation, length of
cohabitation is particularly relevant when a marriage is short, such as
that of Khloe and Lamar.
When determining spousal support for short marriages, a court will generally
assume that a spouse can more easily attain self-sufficiency (as they
were presumably supporting themselves prior to the marriage). Moreover,
a spouse from a short marriage generally will not be entitled to support
on a compensatory basis.
On occasion, however, the courts have awarded lengthy support where the
children are young on the date of separation, the support recipient is
elderly, or the parties’ roles were such that a spousal support award
was justified. Since the adoption of the
Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines, spousal support awards have become more consistent.