Greg Norman and Chris Evert Divorce Spouses, Engaged to Each Other

Tennis star Chris Evert was on the Oprah show today, showing off her engagement ring from fiance/golf great Greg Norman. The two were engaged last year. The talk show appearance sparked a little curiosity about the status of Norman’s divorce from Laura Andrassy Norman, his wife of 25 years. I checked it out and, boy, Mrs. Norman is not going quietly.

Very shortly after Norman announced that he and Laura were divorcing, back in May 2006, he was seen out with Evert. Evert was still married to her husband of 18 years, Andy Mill, at the time. Evert and Mill divorced in December 2006, with Evert reportedly paying Mill $7 million in the settlement. The couple has three teenage sons. The Normans have two grown children. The Normans and the Evert-Mills were reportedly very close friends for many years, even taking trips together.

The Norman divorce, filed in Florida where the couple lived the majority of the time, was filed in June 2006 on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. Things got nasty when Laura’s lawyers threatened to force Evert to testify. Norman’s attorneys then requested that Norman be awarded the majority of the estimated $300 to $500 million marital estate because he was the only party responsible for his enormous golf winnings and related endorsement deals. In the summer of 2007, the Normans reportedly settled the divorce, with Laura receiving somewhere between $100 million and $150 million in assets. That settlement was never fully finalized due to a disagreement on who would pay a tax liability on the couple’s jets. (Laura argues that taxes due on the potential money made from the sale of the jets should be paid by Norman because he was awarded the jets in the settlement. Norman’s position seems to be that the tax debt should be divided as a marital liability because of some tax filing details.)

Florida is considered an “equitable distribution” state when it comes to property distribution in a divorce. The court is supposed to divide the marital property in a fair and just manner, taking into account all of the circumstances of the marriage and the divorce. Adultery can be considered in making an equitable distribution in most “no-fault divorce” states. It is somewhat unusual though for adultery to cause a major imbalance in the distribution unless it can be shown that the cheating spouse wasted marital assets on the affair.

A judge signed the Normans’ divorce decree in September 2007, but allowed a few issues to remain unresolved – including the tax question. (This procedure is called bifurcation. See our March 24th post on Johnny Knoxville’s divorce for more information on bifurcation.) Laura’s lawyers then sought to depose Evert regarding private trips she took in the Norman jets. The judge denied that request. Norman has now filed suit against Laura for breaching a confidentiality agreement that was part of their divorce settlement by talking in interviews about their marriage and about Evert. That suit as well as the remaining divorce issues are still pending.

Sources: New York Post, New Zealand Herald, Vero Beach Press-Journal