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.