16 extreme celeb divorce disputes that had to be settled in court

Their 72-day-long marriage might have been one of the shortest in Hollywood, but their divorce saga went on for over a year. Kim Kardashian filed for divorce. Then Kris Humphries retaliated by filing for an annulment, accusing Kardashian of fraud. Despite a prenup in place, Humphries still went after $7 million — and eventually lost. Kardashian was already pregnant with daughter North West by the time all was settled.

The demise of Kelsey and Camille Grammer’s marriage cryptically played out on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and while Kelsey was on Broadway during much of the show’s filming, he was also already having an affair with now-wife Kate Walsh. Camille may have been humiliated, but she went on to have the last laugh with her $30 million settlement. Kelsey and Kate married two weeks after his divorce from Camille was finalized.

After 25 seemingly perfect years, the Hogans called it quits. Soon afterward, all the skeletons came out of the closet, including a sex tape with Hulk and his best friend’s wife and an affair he had with his daughter’s friend. After a bitter divorce settlement, Hulk went on to pay Linda $30 million. She also got to keep the Cadillac Escalade, a Mercedes, a Corvette and a Rolls Royce.

Their two-year-long marriage ended in divorce, but their battle continued in court over custody of their two sons. Usher went on to be awarded primary custody of the boys, sadly, after Tameka Foster’s older son from a previous relationship was killed in a Jet Ski accident.

Paul McCartney and Heather Mills’ divorce has been considered one of the ugliest and most expensive in celeb history. After a two-year-long court battle, a family judge awarded Mills $48.6 million as well as $15 million in real estate. McCartney must pay $70,000 a year in child support along with school tuition and nanny fees for their daughter, Beatrice.

After their nine-year-long marriage ended in divorce, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger went on to have a six-year-long custody battle. It came to a head when a recorded voicemail surfaced in which Baldwin called daughter Ireland a “thoughtless little pig.” Baldwin was forced to attend anger management as part of their agreement.

Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards’ marriage ended in 2007, but their court battles continue to this day. Sometimes, these two are friendly, with Richards even temporarily raising Sheen’s twin sons with his most recent ex-wife, Brooke Mueller. Other times, though, these two fight over child support and trusts and homes — and often air out all of their dirty laundry in public.

Richard Gere and Carey Lowell quickly reached an agreement when it came to custody of their son, Homer, but their court drama continues over the $100 million fortune at stake.

Sofía Vergara and Nick Loeb may not have been married during their nearly 10-year-long relationship, but they did make some legally binding decisions that dragged out their breakup in court. Vergara and Loeb froze their embryos and signed a contract requiring mutual consent to bring the embryos to term. After the breakup, Loeb is suing Vergara for those embryos.

While Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry were never married, they have spent a lot of time in court over custody of their daughter, Nahla. At one time, Berry paid her Canadian model ex $192,000 a year in child support and was also ordered to pay his legal fees, totaling $300,000. At the height of their drama, Berry accused Aubry of being a racist and bleaching Nahla’s hair. Most recently, they were back in court when Berry attempted to move Nahla to Paris, where she wanted to reside with now-husband Olivier Martinez. The court denied her motion.

Bethenny Frankel has divulged a few details of her four-year-long — and still pending — divorce settlement during the current season of Real Housewives of New York. We know this: She still pays for the apartment her ex lives in, she gets $30,000 lawyer invoices and she shares custody of her daughter, Bryn. An appeals judge recently ruled in Frankel’s favor by removing the $12,000 per month spousal support she was paying Jason Hoppy. She is still paying him $10,000 a month in child support.

Supermodel Christie Brinkley and architect Peter Cook were married for 11 years, but things turned ugly when Brinkley discovered that Cook was having an affair with an 18-year-old. Brinkley and Cook went on to have a four-year-long custody battle over daughter Sailor, with Cook even appearing on Dateline to say that Brinkley was trying to “publicly castrate” him. In the end, Brinkley paid $2.1 million to Cook in exchange for custody of their daughter.

The couple, famous for being parents to sextuplets and twins on reality TV, had a very public split after Kate discovered that Jon had cheated on her. Kate went on to film their lives minus Jon, and Jon went on Couples Therapy with his new girlfriend, whom he constantly compared to Kate. About his marriage to Kate, Jon said, “It was kind of like 10 years of a business transaction.”

While their divorce was pretty quiet compared to other celebrity breakups, Madonna and Guy Richie recently made headlines with their custody battle over son Rocco. The teenager lived with Madonna in New York City, but he refused to return from a visit with his father in London and wanted to stay with his father permanently. The former couple battled it out in a New York court for months, with a judge even suggesting that they come to a resolution before a court had to mandate one. It seems they listened. Madonna has been spending more time at her London home, and Rocco seems to be going back and forth between his parents.

When we hear about drug addiction, poisoning, herpes, gay affairs and violent attacks in a marriage, most of us would assume we are talking about a rock ‘n’ roll couple, right? Nope. These are a few of the many reasons brought up in divorce court by Liza Minnelli and David Gest for dissolving their 16-month-long marriage.

Terrence Howard and Michelle Ghent had a very volatile relationship during their one-year marriage and during court proceedings. Ghent accused Howard of beating her, and Howard accused Ghent of attempting to extort Empire earnings from him with a sex tape and an STD diagnosis.