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Ex-Governor, Wife Stay In Spotlight With Messy Divorce

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By ANGELA DELLI SANTI, The Associated Press

Published: February 16, 2008

TRENTON, N.J. - They have bickered over whether she knew he was gay, whose tell-all book would sell better, whether a poster of a nude man hanging over his new lover's bed had to come down before she would allow their 6-year-old to visit.

Divorce has been exceptionally bitter for former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey and his wife, Dina Matos McGreevey. Unless they can resolve the custody and money issues that have arisen since their acrimonious parting, the state's estranged former first couple is heading for a trial in May.

The pair split three months after he came out on live television, saying he had a gay affair with an ex-staff member and that he would resign. On Friday, they were in court for the umpteenth round in their drawn-out divorce proceeding, this time to fight about whether Matos McGreevey has to cooperate the experts he hired to bolster his claim for shared custody.

Celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder, whose list of clients includes exes of Mike Tyson and Liz Taylor, doubts that the former governor and his wife will follow the script of the 95 percent of divorcing spouses who settle their cases before trial.

"She is a betrayed spouse, but worse," said Felder, who is not involved in the McGreevey case. "He turned away from her for a member of his own sex; it was even more insulting because she was made a public fool. She feels as if she was used and this is payback time."

The McGreeveys were married in October 2000 and split in November 2004, when they left the governor's mansion in Princeton and began living apart. As of February, they have been separated with the intention of divorcing for three years and three months - nearly as long as the marriage.

After the breakup, he wrote a tell-all book, then went on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and acknowledged having a gay tryst while his wife was in the hospital giving birth to their daughter, Jacqueline. She followed with a tell-all book of her own, and they argued over whose would sell more copies.

On custody, their lawyers - he is on his third, she has kept the same one throughout - have squabbled over all sorts of issues. Matos McGreevey has complained about artwork in her husband's home, demanding that one nude photograph be removed, and arguing that Jacqueline should not be allowed to sleep in her father's bed.

McGreevey, who is studying to be an Episcopal priest, wants to keep his daughter for overnight visits on a school night and wants to take her to Episcopal services.

The couple once rushed to court days before McGreevey was set to throw Jacqueline a birthday bash because his wife argued it wasn't his weekend for visitation.

The bickering also involves money: Matos McGreevey claims he isn't living up to his earning potential as a licensed lawyer. She also insists his live-in boyfriend, Mark O'Donnell, should have to disclose his finances.

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