Inside Phil Collins' divorce – bitter feud, not showering claims and toy-boy marriage

Genesis musician Phil Collins hasn’t had an easy ride in his love life.

The musician, 71, met his now ex-wife Orianne Cevey, 47, in the 90s when she was working as his translator in Switzerland, and they eventually tied the knot in 1999 – but divorced nine years later in 2008.

Before meeting Orianne, Phil had been married twice before – first to Andrea Bertorelli in 1980 and then to Jill Tavelman in 1996.

All three of his marriages ended in divorce.

The pair moved into a Swiss mansion together and welcomed two sons – Nicholas and Matthew.

However, once their relationship sadly broke down, it saw Phil hand Orianne £25million in the divorce settlement.

She went on to exchange vows with Charles Mejjati – but their relationship also came to an end when she decided instead to reunite with Phil in 2016, and they eventually divorced.

In 2017 Orianne admitted: “Our ­separation was the wrong decision.

“I now call Phil my husband again. We are so close that it does not actually make a difference if we are married or not.

“We were always very close, because of the children. Just last year I realised that he is indeed the man of my life.”

She called their split a “mistake” which was then “fixed” after realising they “missed each other”.

Phil had also supported his ex-wife through surgery for a slipped disk in her neck, and aided in Orianne’s recovery when the operation left her paralysed and using a wheelchair.

But things started to go wrong in 2020, when it was reported Phil asked her to leave his Miami mansion – but Orianne refused and instead demanded a renegotiation of their divorce settlement – and allegedly “filed a counterclaim seeking approximately $20million (£14.7million).”

It came as Orianne told Phil she wanted to “try to see if I can be happy again” with a new man, and went on to secretly tie the knot with her toy-boy husband Thomas Bates, 32, in August 2020.

As a result of the marriage, Phil asked Orianne to move permanently out of his $40million (£29.5million) property – but she failed to meet the deadline he proposed.

Orianne didn’t take it lying down, either – instead, she went on to put a number of Phil’s possessions up for auction with Kodner Galleries, Page Six reported at the time – including a gold record of Robert Plant’s album The Principle of Moments.

She also put a lot of ‘assorted Phil Collins awards’ up for auction for a meagre $100.

Eventually, Phil’s valuables were removed from the house entirely and placed in storage until the divorce resettlement case came to a close, with Phil insisting she has no right to the property.

It was also suggested that Phil move into another home while proceedings were underway – though lawyers contested this after it emerged Cevey secretly married Bates and bought a £1.2million property of her own just before breaking up with Phil for a second time.

While attempting to sue her ex-husband for the half of his Miami beach house, Orianne further alleged that Phil abused alcohol and prescription medication – and claimed the Do You Remember? hitmaker ceased showering and brushing his teeth.

She said he became “depressed, abusive and incapable of having sex”.

Speaking to The Sun at the time, she said: “I felt like I was trapped in a golden cage. When someone’s depressed, it’s hard to help them out. As much as you love them, why would you keep it up? After years, you get fed up.”

But Phil’s lawyers damned the claims as “scandalous, scurrilous, unethical and, for the most part, patently false or grossly exaggerated.”

Things got even more complicated in December last year, when Orianne made the decision to divorce her new husband Bates after just a year of marriage, and blamed the pandemic for the split.

The pair originally eloped to the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas.

Explaining the split to her Instagram followers, Orianne posted: “I am filing for divorce from my husband, Thomas Bates.

“I believe the emotional stress of the COVID quarantine caused me to act in ways and do things that were out of character.

“Fortunately, I have faced challenging situations before and like I always have, I will muster all the strength I can, the best team I can find and the courage to do the right thing.”

She added: “Thank you to so many who have supported me in the past – it means so much to my family and me.

“To be clear: my intention is to let our attorneys deal with this resolution behind closed doors, and not in the media which is why I am posting the statement on my personal account.”

Just a month before the announcement, Orianne claimed she was made out to be a “b***h” and was helping to launch Tom’s aspiring pop career – with the wannabe musician worrying that criticism from the In the Air Tonight star would stall his own music career taking off.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk