Erika Jayne and Tom Girardi are splitting after more than two decades of marriage.
Erika Jayne and Tom Girardi are splitting after more than two decades of marriage.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star announced the news on Tuesday. According to court records, Erika filed for divorce on Nov. 3.
"After much consideration, I have decided to end my marriage to Tom Girardi," Erika tells ET in a statement. "This is not a step taken lightly or easily. I have great love and respect for Tom and for our years and the lives we built together."
"It is my absolute wish to proceed through this process with respect and with the privacy that both Tom and I deserved," she adds. "I request others give us that privacy as well."
E! News was first to report the news.
Erika cited irreconcilable differences in her divorce filing. She is asking the court for spousal support and is also asking the court to terminate its ability to award spousal support to Tom. In addition, she is asking that Tom pay all attorneys' fees.
Erika, 49, and Tom, 81, tied the knot in 2000. She was also previously married to Thomas Zizzo, with whom she shares 26-year-old son Tommy.
In her 2018 memoir, Pretty Mess, Erika shared that she met Tom, a lawyer, while working as a cocktail waitress at the now-defunct Chasen’s. After a year of waiting on him, Tom finally asked Erika out, and they became inseparable. She moved into his home just a few months into the relationship.
Erika shut down gossip that she was with Tom for money, or married an older man because of "daddy issues." She also revealed that they didn't have a prenup.
"It never came up," she said. “Let’s be serious, Mr. Girardi knows the law so well that a prenup is not going to do s**t. As any lawyer will tell you, there is always a way around a prenup, even if you think it is ironclad.”
The couple also chose not to wear wedding rings. Though Erika did have one and wore it on occasion, Tom never had one.
"Listen, a wedding ring does not have magical powers,” she noted. “It is not going to stop anyone from doing something."
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