Divorces are never good. While many relationships may be able to end without the parties getting into a knock down drag out fight, things almost always get heated and contentious. And such is now the case with the divorce proceedings of actor Robert De Niro, who married Grace Hightower in 1997. The two have been separated since 2018 and are currently going through a divorce where De Niro's side is now saying that the actor is being worked too hard because he must pay for Hightower's lifestyle.
The pair have a prenuptial agreement, but that apparently won't actually kick in until the divorce has been finalized, and so the issue at hand is how much Robert De Niro is paying, and how much he feels he should be paying, for Grace Hightower's lifestyle until that point. Both sides are pointing at the others' allegedly extravagant spending. De Niro's side claimed, according to PageSix, that Hightower purchased a $1.2 million diamond in 2019, while Hightower's side is countering that Robert De Niro charters a helicopter to go to brunch with friends in Connecticut.
It's far from unusual to see money called into question in a divorce, and when that amount of money is in the millions, it's certainly less unusual. The divorce is being handled in Manhattan and it was there that Robert De Niro's lawyer, Caroline Krauss, apparently asked the judge, as part of a virtual hearing where the court was asked to reduce the amount of money that the actor is paying to Hightower.
According to his lawyer, the money that De Niro is making on his next two films is already earmarked to handle delinquent tax bills. And thus the money going to Hightower is something of a hardship. According to filings the amount of money De Niro has been paying his ex-wife has been dropping already due to De Niro himself simply sending less money.
Robert De Niro's lawyer argued that, at 77, the actor should not have to work the long days a film shoot requires if he does not choose to do, and that he should not have to take every job that comes along for the same reason, a statement which seems to indicate that De Niro has taken jobs in the recent past simply because he needed the work, not that he necessarily loved the movie.
The judge in the case simply wants to get the divorce finalized. He reminded both parties that this situation, while it might be considered ordinary for the people involved is not, saying “There is nothing ordinary about these expenses," due to the fact that were talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, a level of wealth that most people will never experience. And the problem is that, when we're talking about that kind of money, it becomes harder to determine what is considered unnecessary, even if we're talking about helicopter rides and diamond rings.
