The breakup of a marriage is usually a private affair, but not for Beverly Hills 90210 star Tori Spelling.
The American actress, 50, told her husband Dean McDermott, 57, she was divorcing him in the most public way possible — during a live podcast.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Beverley Hills 90210 cast are still great friends.
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Spelling let the listeners of her MisSPELLING podcast in on a phone call she made to her estranged husband to let him know she had filed for divorce.
“Oh, s***. He’s at work right now. This sucks,” she told her listeners before placing the call and leaving a message.
“I’m super nervous because I don’t like confrontation.”
When McDermott called her back, she apologised for contacting him while he was “in the middle of going to work and everything”.
“They’ve done it. It’s the formality,” she told him.
“It’s just the one sheet you check off, and next you’ll have to sign it.”
Listeners were not able to hear McDermott’s side of the call during Sunday’s episode.
They did hear Spelling ask McDermott if he had a lawyer.
“Wait, it’s gonna be spun what way?” she said.
“That I’ve had enough of you?
“What? What do you mean?”
Spelling then began to argue with McDermott over who had the right to file for divorce first.
“In all honesty, after this whole journey, if it’s about who files first, the other person is wrong, I feel like I deserve to file first then,” she said.
After reiterating that she should file first, she concluded the call by telling McDermott, “I love you”.
After hanging up, Spelling told friends in the room with her that she had “never felt more alone in 50 years”.
“I don’t feel worth loving. That’s the truth,” she said.
The couple were married for 18 years and have five children together, aged from seven to 17.
“We always (said), ‘Hey, it made it 18 years.’ It shouldn’t have made it 18 years,” Spelling said.
“And I think he would say the same thing if he and I had a real heart-to-heart.
“It would have been over a lot sooner.”
Spelling added that the two started having problems just months after they got together.
“We had this very, quick, passionate falling in love period,” she said.
“Everyone talks about red flags.
“I like saying that I just like to make dresses out of red flags and then proceed.”
She mentioned that anger issues contributed to the couple’s problems.
McDermott revealed in a Daily Mail interview last year that they had been sleeping in separate bedrooms since 2017.
He admitted flying into alcohol-fuelled rages after mixing tequila with prescription medicine, leaving his wife and children “petrified”.
The Canadian actor said he had been living in a sober facility in California and was determined to make amends to his family for the distress he had caused them.
“All Tori’s ever done to this day is want me to be happy and healthy, and I inflicted a lot of damage and pain on that woman,” he said.
“Alcohol made me feel good enough,” he added of his binge-drinking bouts.
“I started feeling good enough, until it got to a point where it didn’t — it ended up in isolation.”
Spelling told him to go to rehab in June 2023 — and he did.
“(I’m) going to be living the rest of my life making amends because I took something that was really beautiful and I just tore it down year after year, day after day,” he admitted.
McDermott has since started a relationship with Texan TV personality Lily Calo.
Spelling, the daughter of the late TV magnate Aaron Spelling, starred alongside Luke Perry, Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth in the original Beverly Hills 90210 from 1990 to 2000.
She also appeared in the films Scary Movie 2 and The House of Yes.
McDermott appeared on the Canadian TV series Due South and hosted the cooking competition show Chopped Canada.
It was the second marriage for both.
– with CNN
If you are concerned about yours or a loved one’s use of alcohol or other drugs, call for free, confidential advice, information and counselling from the National Alcohol and Other Drug hotline, 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 1800 250 015.
