Dennis Hopper is not world famous because of his stability and family values. He made Easy Rider; it would be a letdown if he were Mr. Domesticated. But even by Hollywood standards, the unraveling of his fifth marriage is a barn burner. The actor, 73, filed for divorce from the former Victoria Duffy, 42, his wife of 13 years, in December in the midst of his life-or-death battle against metastasized cancer. She countersued in January. Among the milder of her claims was that he was not in his right mind.
Then there's Elizabeth Edwards, wife of the former presidential hopeful and Senator from North Carolina. Her Stage 4 cancer is incurable, but she and John Edwards have decided to separate, reportedly at her behest.
Is divorcing while dying--or at least facing down death--just one of those inexplicable things famous people do, like releasing a signature scent or giving their children embarrassing names? Why would anyone go through it, considering the irreconcilable differences they already have with their mortality?
The Edwards split may be a special case, but the Hopper schism appears to center on an all-too-familiar family bugbear, money. Neither of the Hoppers' lawyers would comment, but their divorce filings indicate this may be his way of choosing sides in a looming fight over his estate.
Bad health news is often a catalyst in a marriage. Those on their way to splitsville take a shortcut; those in (relative) harmony draw even closer. Those whose children do not like the new spouse hear more about it--and about the will. For these reasons, marital and estate-planning lawyers say, deathbed divorce is not as uncommon as you might think.
"A spouse is pretty much the only person you can't cut out of a will," says Wynne Whitman, an estate-planning lawyer in New Jersey. Although the law differs from state to state, attorneys say statutes and courts tend to favor surviving spouses in determining inheritances, especially if there are minor children. (The Hoppers have a 6-year-old.) The court might even posthumously change a prenuptial agreement, which the Hoppers also have and which Victoria Hopper is challenging.
But even the not particularly rich sometimes want to disinherit a spouse. "There are a surprising number of people who have been separated for decades but have never been divorced," says Whitman. She advises clients who have been given grim prognoses to be thorough: divorce, rewrite the will and check all beneficiary designations. "You don't want the spouse from three spouses ago getting the life insurance."
For the multiple marrier, like Hopper, making a will seem fair to all family members is particularly tricky. Adult offspring--there are three grown Hopper children--may try to pre-empt an estate battle by taking care of business before the funeral. "It's very common when we have couples marry later in life and one party develops an illness, the adult children will precipitate the initiation of divorce proceedings," says Joseph Cordell, a domestic-litigation attorney in Michigan. "They distrust the new spouse." Lest we forget, Anna Nicole Smith's fight for a share of her nonagenarian husband's estate went all the way to the Supreme Court. And she won.