Donald Trump Jr.’s divorce is now getting saucier. Page Six recently reported that Donald Jr.’s wife of 12 years, Vanessa Trump, received an inheritance which emboldened her to proceed with the divorce.
Vanessa’s father was celebrity attorney Charles Haydon who died in 2005, just months before Vanessa married Donald Jr. in an extravagant ceremony at Mar-a-Lago. Haydon (whose celebrity clients included Marilyn Monroe) invested approximately $1 million in Rao’s Specialty Foods, the producer of premium pasta sauce “Rao’s Homemade,” and controlled 30 percent of the company, which was left to his estate. In June 2017, it was quietly sold for $415 million to Sovos Foods. Shortly thereafter, Vanessa’s mother bought Roger Ailes’ former Fifth Avenue apartment for $6.4 million in cash – a move that makes it clear that the family is enjoying that saucy payout.
It appears Donald Jr. may be aware of the marinara overflow because The New York Daily News is reporting that he filed a “Defendant’s Demand for Statement of Net Worth” in Manhattan Supreme Court. This is Donald Jr.’s request that Vanessa produce a statement of her income, assets and liabilities.
In California, Family Code §2100 requires the preparation and service of Declarations of Disclosure within 60 days of the initial filings, in which complete, voluntary disclosure of information relating to all income, assets and debts owned by either of the parties is produced.
The purposes behind the declarations are: (1) to marshal, preserve, and protect assets so as to prevent their dissipation; (2) to ensure fair and sufficient child and spousal support awards; (3) to achieve division of community and quasi-community assets and liabilities as provided by law; and (4) to reduce the adversarial nature of marital dissolution and the attendant costs by fostering full disclosure and cooperative discovery. See Elden v. Superior Court (Elden) (1997) 53 Cal.App.4th 1497, 1505-1506.
Page Six had previously reported that despite rumors of multiple affairs by Donald Jr., Vanessa had committed to stand by Donald Jr. for the duration of his father’s first term in office. However, Vanessa’s good fortune and newfound ability to support herself may have contributed to her change of heart. As for Donald Jr., he may find that the secret to avoiding having to pay spousal support is in the sauce.
About the authors:
Sarah Van Voorhis and Ariel Sosna, both Certified Family Law Specialists, are founding partners of Van Voorhis & Sosna. Follow them on Twitter at @VanVoorhisSosna.
