7 Of The Most Drawn Out Divorces In Hollywood History

On average, an amicable and uncontested divorce takes a couple of months to resolve fully. However, former spouses may be forced to wait more than a year to sign off on their divorce papers if they have to settle on a custody agreement for their kids and divide up their assets. While that explains why some celebrity divorces take years to finalize, it still doesn't make their timelines any less shocking. For instance, although Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez reportedly started the divorce proceedings for their 2-year-long marriage in October 2015, they only reached a settlement in August 2023.

According to a source who spoke to TMZ, the couple split because they realized they were incompatible. Insiders elaborated that the "Catwoman" star wasn't actively seeking sole custody of their only child, Maceo-Robert Martinez, and instead wanted to reach an arrangement that prioritized his well-being. Court documents obtained by Us Weekly confirmed that Berry and Olivier eventually settled on joint legal and physical custody of their son. However, she had to pay her ex-husband $8,000 in monthly child support while covering additional childcare expenses like health insurance and school fees. 

Additionally, every time the "Gothika" actor got a paycheck exceeding $2 million, she had to shell out 4.3% of it to Olivier. Their divorce drama continued when Berry filed court documents in August 2024 seeking sole custody of Maceo, per People. In them, she claimed that Olivier "refuses to co-parent or communicate in a child-centered way" and detailed how he couldn't see her perspective on a conflict surrounding their son's education.

Maria Shriver And Arnold Schwarzenegger took 10 years to finalize their divorce. During a May 2011 interview with the Los Angeles Times, the "Terminator" star revealed that his 25-year-marriage to Shriver ended after he confessed to secretly fathering a child with their housekeeper nearly a decade prior. In 2018, TMZ reported that the estranged couple didn't have custody issues because their kids were already adults or nearing adulthood. However, they still had a tough feat at hand: Dividing approximately $400 million in assets. 

Their legal proceedings were apparently moving at a snail's pace because the former California governor and his ex-wife weren't entirely sure about breaking up in the first place. Ultimately, though, Shriver and Schwarzenegger finalized their divorce in December 2021. According to TMZ, the exes most likely agreed on an even division of their estate. Although the former spouses remained amicable and continued to get together for family events, they didn't shy away from discussing how the divorce took a toll on them. 

Speaking on the "Making Space with Hoda Kotb" podcast in February 2023, the Kennedy family member shared that she felt so lost after the end of their long-standing marriage that she went to a cloistered convent to recuperate. While the Reverend Mother did not let Shriver live with them, she helped her realize that she needed to discover who she was and value it above all else. Meanwhile, in Schwarzenegger's 2023 docuseries "Arnold," he acknowledged losing the most important thing in his life because of one "major failure." 

Former Bravo star Bethenny Frankel filed for divorce from her husband Jason Hoppy in January 2013 after publicly announcing their separation the previous month. At the time, the couple had been married for two years and shared one daughter, Bryn Hoppy, of whom they both expressed a desire for primary custody. While the reality star and her ex reportedly reached a settlement in July 2016, their divorce wasn't entirely resolved. In January 2017, Jason was arrested after the Skinnygirl founder lodged a police complaint asserting that he had stalked and harassed her. 

An NYPD spokesperson told People that Frankel claimed that Jason confronted and threatened her at Bryn's school. In 2018, the "RHONY" alum sought to alter their 50/50 custody arrangement to obtain sole custody of Bryn. Their legal spat reached a new low as Jason's team took aim at a sad detail of Frankel's life: The death of her ex, Dennis Shields. During an August 2018 hearing, Jason's lawyer argued that they were unsure if his ex-wife could act as a sound parent to their daughter, given the fact that she let her hang around Shields, who died of an apparent overdose in 2018. 

When Frankel took the stand in March 2019, she pointed out that Jason had sent her tons of emotionally abusive text messages after they split up. In fact, she alleged that her ex's toxic behavior extended to their daughter, too, because he had drawn a picture of their late dog, Cookie, and left it in her lunch box the day after his passing. Their divorce was ultimately finalized in January 2021. 

After an excruciating 8-year-long court battle, which was highly publicized in the media, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's messy divorce was finally over in January 2025. The Oscar winner and humanitarian filed for divorce from her husband of two years in September 2016 following a scary plane ride where an intoxicated and belligerent Pitt allegedly both physically and verbally abused her, which the "Girl, Interrupted" star detailed in damning court filings. Pitt also got into a physical altercation with their kids when they intervened.

After the filings came to light, an insider explicated to People that the "Fight Club" star got into a horrible fight with his then-wife that got way out of hand. The source also conceded that Pitt was involved in an altercation with their children, but they insisted that it was not an act of physical abuse but rather a means to de-escalate the situation. In addition to fighting for custody of their kids, Pitt and Jolie got into a legal drama surrounding their once jointly-owned winery after she allegedly sold her stake in it without telling him first.

Although the former It couple remained tight-lipped about their contentious legal battle for the most part, the "Bullet Train" actor did share his thoughts about their drawn-out divorce in a 2017 GQ interview. "I heard one lawyer say, 'No one wins in court — it's just a matter of who gets hurt worse,'" Pitt professed. "And it seems to be true, you spend a year just focused on building a case to prove your point and why you're right and why they're wrong, and it's just an investment in vitriolic hatred."

It took six years for Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan to finalize their divorce. The beloved celebrity couple announced the shocking end of their 9-year marriage through a joint statement released in April 2018. Then, January 2020 court documents obtained by The Blast confirmed that the exes had agreed on joint custody of their daughter, Everly. Further, in April 2024, Us Weekly obtained legal filings related to Dewan seeking a portion of the profits from her ex-husband's "Magic Mike" franchise because Tatum had apparently dug into their "marital funds" to produce the box office hit. 

During a hearing, the "Step Up" star's lawyer stated that although she had received a small part of the blockbuster's profits, the amount should've been far larger to justify her initial stake in its success. Meanwhile, filings shared by People from the time detailed how Dewan had accused Tatum and his business associates of creating "a complex web of LLCs, holding companies, and partnerships" to "dilute and conceal the value of, and licensing income therefrom, the community property share of 'Magic Mike' intellectual property." 

In the following months, the former couple continued to fight over the profits in court. In September 2024, court documents obtained by InTouch Weekly revealed that Tatum's legal fees over their drawn-out divorce had reached six figures. Thankfully, the "21 Jump Street" star and his ex-wife finally signed off on everything later in September. Despite all their ups and downs over the years, Dewan wants to stay friends with Tatum after their divorce.

In 2014, TMZ reported that Elvira "Elly" Castle had filed court documents to end her 21-year-long marriage to "The Dukes of Hazzard" star John Schneider due to irreconcilable differences. Fortunately, there was no concern over an ensuing custody battle since both of their kids were already adults. Nonetheless, the former couple was still looking at a complicated split because Castle wanted her ex to shell out spousal support. A June 2018 report by TMZ added that Schneider would likely do a 3-day stint in jail for failing to pay $150,000 in temporary spousal support payments despite being given an initial deadline in March. Additionally, he had to log 240 hours of community service because the actor hadn't abided by the court's orders and made Castle the legal owner of their home. 

TMZ confirmed in August 2019 that they had finally reached a divorce settlement after a bruising, 5-year-long court battle. However, Castle and Schneider's split ultimately came at a great cost for him, in particular. Alongside reluctantly handing over the keys to their $600,000 property and paying his former wife $25,000 in monthly spousal support, the actor also had to shell out nearly $280,000 to reimburse Castle's legal fees. Suffice it to say that the "Smallville" star wasn't too pleased with the arrangement because Castle claimed that he owed her over $1 million in spousal support payments in February 2020, as TMZ reported at the time. Moreover, while speaking to Nash Country Daily in 2018, Schneider called the court out for setting his spousal payments so high and ignoring his financial woes.

Jesse Williams and Aryn Drake-Lee's 5-year marriage, and 13-year-long relationship, ended in April 2017 when the "Grey's Anatomy" alum filed for divorce. Williams and Drake-Lee's split turned ugly in August of that same year when she demanded sole custody of their two children, Sadie and Maceo, per court documents cited by Us Weekly. Drake-Lee posited that her estranged husband's demanding work schedule consistently took precedence over his family life and prevented Williams from fulfilling his parental responsibilities. To make matters worse, Drake-Lee also suggested that she wasn't entirely sure if Williams was even as busy as he claimed. Likewise, she also wanted her kids to be apart from their dad because he supposedly frequently had sexual partners over at his home. 

Things started looking significantly bleaker for the "Cabin In The Woods" star in June 2018 when the court ordered him to pay Drake-Lee $100,000 a month to cover spousal and child support, per TMZ. While that number is undoubtedly high, court documents revealed that Williams' monthly income was around $521,000. Although they signed off on their divorce papers in October 2020 and agreed to joint custody, the battle wasn't over yet. 

In February 2022, the actor filed a complaint alleging that his ex-wife was barring him from spending court-permitted time with their kids, per Us Weekly. The following month, Williams requested that the court reduce his child and spousal support payments since his income had dwindled considerably after he left "Grey's Anatomy." The petition was accepted in April, and he only had to pay about $6,500 in monthly spousal support.