COUPLESInside The Nasty Divorce: Why Erika Jayne Believes Tom Girardi 'Was Cheating'
Despite the fact that lawyers are currently pointing the fingers at Erika Jayne and Tom Girardi for arranging a "sham" divorce to protect their assets against current charges of embezzlement, an insider close to Jayne says that there was a legitimate reason for her to file for the split.
"The reason she divorced Tom is because he was cheating on her with multiple women," a source told PEOPLE.
"When she was performing her last week on Broadway, he left her high and dry and was frolicking around town instead of supporting her and attending her shows," the insider noted, referring to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star's run as the lead in Chicago at the top of 2020. "She realized she would never be a priority to him and that was her breaking point."
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The source added that Jayne has been aware of her husband's alleged catting about for years, but she wanted to try and save the marriage — and that timing of the divorce filing just happened to come at the same time Girardi started getting into a whole muck of legal hot water, starting with a class-action lawsuit alleging he sucked up client settlement funds for his own use or, as the suit stated, for a “need to fund outrageous lifestyles for himself and his soon-to-be ex-wife Erika Jayne.”
That lawsuit also pointedly noted, "The Girardi 'divorce' is simply a sham attempt to fraudulently protect Tom’s and Erika’s money from those that seek to collect on debts owed by Tom and his law firm."
However, the insider claims this isn't true: "The split was a long time coming. The lawsuit just coincided with her decision to leave him."
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Jayne filed for divorce from Girardi after 21 years of marriage on November 3.
“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,” Jayne said at the time. “It is my absolute wish to proceed through this process with respect. and with the privacy that both Tom and I deserve. I request others give us that privacy as well.”
, the lawyer is facing multiple lawsuits at the moment. In the latest legal battle, Girardi’s former law partner, Robert Keese, along with fellow business partners Robert Finnerty and Jill O’Callahan, are suing Girardi to dissolve their venture, 1126 Wilshire Partnership. According to the suit, the three said Girardi owes them each at least $315,000 in lost earnings — the exact amount is currently unknown without a full accounting of the partnership’s records — as well as $442,000 each in lost equity, a total of nearly $2.3 million.
