Bijou Phillips, the wife to Danny Masterson, is seeking a divorce. This comes less than two weeks after the disgraced actor was given a 30-year to life term in prison after being convicted guilty of two counts of rape.
According to the court’s website, Phillips, a 43-year-old actor, petitioned Santa Barbara Superior Court on Monday to dissolve her nearly 12-year marriage to Masterson, 47. The actress from Raising Hope attributed the dissolution of their 11-year marriage to “irreconcilable differences.” According to court filings, Phillips is also asking for spousal support, legal fees, and to have her legal name changed back to Bijou Phillips.
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Bijou is ready to allow Danny to visit their 9-year-old daughter, but she wants sole legal and physical custody, according to court documents. “Ms. Phillips has decided to file for divorce from her husband during this unfortunate time. Her priority remains with her daughter. This period has been unimaginably hard on the marriage and the family. Mr. Masterson was always present for Ms. Phillips during her most difficult times of her life. Ms. Phillips acknowledges that Mr. Masterson is a wonderful father to their daughter,” Ms. Philips’ attorney Peter A. Lauzon said in an interview with TMZ.
Masterson and Phillips started dating in 2004. In 2009, they made their engagement public, and they wed in Ireland in 2011. From 1998 until 2006, Masterson was in the Fox vintage sitcom That ’70s Show with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace. He is also known for his role in the sitcom ‘Men at Work’.
In 2017, Los Angeles police said they were looking into him for sexual assault; he was taken into custody in 2020. Later, after receiving criticism for their own letters to the judge pleading for compassion for Masterson that were made public, Kutcher and Kunis issued an apology. In 2003, Masterson was found guilty of raping two people he knew from the Church of Scientology. Both ladies testified that he aggressively raped them and put drugs in their drinks. On a third allegation that claimed he had sexually assaulted a previous girlfriend in 2001, the jury was unable to agree on a judgment.
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The prosecution retried Masterson on all three charges earlier this year after a mistrial was declared in December 2022 after a first jury was unable to reach convictions on three counts of rape. This time, following seven days of deliberations, a jury comprised of seven women and five men found him guilty on two counts.