George Zimmerman’s wife Shellie has reportedly filed to end the couple’s six year marriage.
From ABC News:
George Zimmerman’s wife Shellie has filed for divorce less than two months after he was acquitted of murder in the death of teenager Trayvon Martin.
She filed the paper work just days after she said in an interviewed aired exclusively on ABC News that the ordeal of the trial had put a strain on their marriage.
The petition says the couple, married in 2007, “separated on Aug. 13, 2013 and are not presently cohabiting as husband and wife. The marriage between the parties is irretrievably broken.” They have no children.
Shellie Zimmerman has asked for “equitable distribution” of their assets as well as their debts. She also seeks sole custody of their two dogs, a Rottweiler named Oso and a smaller dog named Leroy.
She filed for divorce today in Seminole County, Fla.
Shawn Vincent, a spokesman for George Zimmerman’s legal team, said there would be no comment.
The Associated Press reports that Shellie Zimmerman came to her decision about the divorce because of “disappointment.”
Shellie Zimmerman made the decision because of “disappointment,” her attorney, Kelly Sims, wrote Thursday in a short email to The Associated Press. The 26-year-old Zimmerman told ABC’s “Good Morning America” last week that she was having serious doubts about remaining married.
The interview came just after she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor perjury charge for lying during a bail hearing following her husband’s arrest for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Her husband, who was acquitted on second-degree murder and other charges in July, wasn’t in the Sanford, Fla., courtroom as she was sentenced to a year’s probation and 100 hours of community service — even though she supported him and lied about their finances.
And in a slightly longer statement to the Orlando Sentinel, attorney Kelly Sims said, “After much soul searching and recent disappointments, Shellie feels compelled to officially end her six-year marriage to George Michael Zimmerman.” The Orlando Sentinel reports that it was provided a copy of the paperwork and Shellie Zimmerman’s financial affidavit by Sims.
Jeff Weiner, courts reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, tweeted a copy of the petition for divorce.
PDF: Shellie #Zimmerman's petition for divorce from #GeorgeZimmerman http://t.co/NNKiD9e9WQ
— Jeff Weiner (@JeffWeinerOS) September 5, 2013
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Comments
So her lawyer went straight to the press with the divorce papers and such?
Is it just me, or does that seem kind of trashy?
I hope George has the good sense to avoid going to the press to tell “his side of the story”. Someone’s got to retain some modicum of class here. I know they’re only Democrats, but still.
Do you really think they could get a divorce in private?
Am not sure why you are equating George with the actions of Shellie’s atty though, surely you are not implying it was Shellie who instructed her atty to provide information to media? The media NEED George to be a bad guy to justify
all the crap they have been making up about him for 2 years. They will twist every word or edit as the case may be to invent abuse etc. It will be the media and the
attys who are the shytes in this par usual.
Please don’t start besmirching Shellie or George this isn’t
a contest, just two young adults.
I am sad their marriage is over and Pray for them both.
Surely you’re not implying that the divorce lawyer Shellie hired just decided to pass copies of the divorce paperwork and her client’s financial affidavit over to a major daily paper all off her own bat?
“The Orlando Sentinel reports that it was provided a copy of the paperwork and Shellie Zimmerman’s financial affidavit by Sims.”
I’m pretty sure that when you hire a lawyer, they don’t just go trotting off to the media with duplicates of everything they’re working on for you, just out of the blue. Lawyers act on instruction from their clients.
Well, they’re supposed to be instructed by their clients. Not sure that means much more than the attorney and the client agreed to conduct matters in a general way. Each step is rarely cleared with the client first, except for mafia attorneys.
So you’re claiming that it’s common practice for lawyers to shop their clients’ court filings to the press? Just completely off their own bat?
As an incredulous Mark O’Mara would ask, “Really? Really?“
Yeah, no. I’m pretty sure lawyers don’t make a special point of alerting the press and helpfully providing them copies of paperwork unless it’s part of a PR action they’ve discussed with their client first.
Wow.
I am not surprised by the divorce, I am surprised by the timing.
Shellie said she wants to have children. I don’t know if George wants children but even if he does, it will be hard to have and raise children in hiding.
If she wants to, she no longer has to live in hiding. Which is strong reason.
On top of which, read the story of Aaron Swartz’s girlfriend IIRC in the Atlanitc Monthly. A couple defending one member can be strained severely. Especially if the prosecution leans on the other member. I’m pretty sure Zimmerman was opposed to the plea.
I forgot, the Orlando Sentinel says they were seperated sine Aug 13. Before the court appearance.
Why was Shellie Kardashian-Wannabe telling the world about her aspirations to fecundity, though? What made her presume that this was something she needed to share with tens of millions of strangers?
I’m glad I don’t know how George feels about having children. Because really, who talks about stuff like that to complete strangers?
Tacky, tacky, tacky.
So, George Zimmerman named one of his dogs Leroy. I’ll bet anyone $100 that somebody in the lib media will call that proof of his raaaaaacism.
He probably named his dog after the WOW Leeroy Jenkins incident.
http://youtu.be/LkCNJRfSZBU
Maybe he’s an NCIS fan and she wouldn’t let him name the dog Jethro.
George should let her have the dogs and get a Caucasian Ovcharka. I would excpetr for two reasons: 1) I live in a tiny apartment, 2) CO’s are ashort lived breed ( 10 years ). It would break my heart seeing him die so young.
I guess it’s not enough to destroy a man’s life, without the vultures coming to pick the bones?
I wish we’d just leave the ACQUITTED man in peace.
Poor guy. What the popular culture did to him is grotesque. I wish him the best.
Maybe George Zimmerman is just as happy as pie with her decision and does not give a fat rat. Just saying.
That would be the best case all around.
My ex-wife told me if I didn’t stop drinking she’d leave me. I said I accept your terms.
You are so mean. You knew she expected you to be romantic about her pitch. Yet you chose to be legalistic.
Yeah, I’m ROTF about your tale. Looks like she got what she wanted, and it had nothing to do with drinking.
Well, she didn’t mention I’d have to pay the alimony I’ve been paying her for twenty years. Twenty years! This saddens me because if I’d gone ahead and shot her like I’d wanted to, I’d be out of prison by now – and not paying alimony. *sigh* You’re right. I’m just a romantic fool.
Henry, maybe you should liquidate and not work the next twenty….that will cut down on the alimony.
It might have been a mutual decision. Maybe she couldn’t accept the notion of living in hiding for the rest of her life with George and he agreed.
I would also like to point out that she waited until AFTER the trial for this move so she has some class.
True. And if he ever gets any NBC malicious libel money she would deserve some of it for that very reason.
Whatever happened to “for better or worse”?
Because it’s not convenient, apparently.
When did marriage vows take into consideration that millions of angry black men would want to kill one of them?
Marriage vows cover everything, or they are worth nothing. The war on the American family began with no-fault divorce which is an illogical legal concept on its face. Somehow, consistency in the law is no longer important. Mere technical procedural prowess is all that seems to matter nowadays.
Who decides what marriage vows cover, the married couple themselves or you? I’m confused. Are you with the federal government?
Nice to see that things are finally looking up for George.
That is what I thought too.
She probably wants to have kids.. I get that. And having them with George probably isn’t the best idea. If that’s how it’s going down then you blame her for all sorts of stuff and you can understand her dilemma. I’m not going to cast blame on anybody here..
I wonder how much time George was spending on neighborhood watch duties every night when he could have been home with Shellie.
How shocking – a married couple getting a divorce. Even more shocking it involves a young couple who have been under a great deal of stress for quite a while.
Of course while one might agree that it is a positive that the wife “stood by” her husband during his legal troubles it does seem tacky that her and her lawyer are so quick to try and spin the media. But unfortunately that is what is often done by both parties in a divorce and apparently Shellie is too young/foolish to understand the concept of keeping private issues private.
Any trial lawyer you talk to would say this happens all the time. I will give her this. She stayed for the trial.
The reality that most trial lawyers say that is just confirmation that most trial lawyer are weasels.
It may be as much a self-preservation thing as anything else. This is a family that has had to endure extraordinary circumstances and is likely to continue this way for years to come, thanks to the Meddler-in-Chief and the race warlords. A divorce may be the only way she can have a life–any kind of life. Yes…it is selfish but I don’t know what I would do in that situation. I’m sure the mendacious media will make of it what they can. My only hope is that Shellie doesn’t become their pawn for money, dishing dirt on the Zimmerman family.
If she’s looking to keep a low profile, she’s kind of doing it wrong. A good start might be giving away the prime time national TV appearances, and telling her lawyer to stop sending press releases about her to the Associated Press.
She can either get out of the spotlight, or claim her “fifteen minutes of fame”. She can’t do both.
Stressful events can destroy even a strong marriage.
Once had a friend who stuck with his wife through years of her suffering an inoperable spinal tumor. His life consisted of work for pay then going home to provide care for her.
Then her tumor began to respond to treatment, leading to eventual surgical removal. Followed by long term rehabilitation and hundred+ weight loss (inactivity and steroids had made her grossly obese.)
At which point she decided she could not live with the constant reminder of all the difficulties the disease had put her through. Meaning, among other things, him.
Which sounds horrible, but who really has a window into what the private relationship was like? Resentments can easily flow in both direction, and can just as easily become quite poisonous.
In Florida no house, and no kids means Joint Dissolution – you don’t even need a lawyer, just an agreed upon property settlement statement.
It’s sad, but not surprising.
I have some information 9based on a friend’s personal experience) that Florida is quite the boy’s club when it comes to divorce.
He will likely retain all of the NBC settlement, and the divorce is further evidence of damages (as is 99% of everything posted on FB about these two)
This is not an unusual situation after a family trauma, and the recent attempted lynching certainly qualifies as trauma.
But why is this news? Leave the poor guy alone.
Depending on the study one accepts, the probability of any given marriage ending in divorce is in the neighborhood of 40-50%. Divorce being so prevalent, I’m not sure anything concrete can be said about this particular one.
However, gossip is always welcome, so… do you think maybe George and Jeantel have something going now? She’s single, he’s been served, a guy gets lonely, she’s available, hormones, natural physical imperatives kick in….. I don’t *know* anything, but we all noticed how they looked at one another in court. Make for a great Lifetime movie.
Six years is not enough in Florida to receive alimony. This split will be pretty fair…everything thereafter will be to each their own unless one or the other agrees to concede a split of it.
Sad.
He should have shown up for her trial, even if they went ahead and divorced, just to avoid making her feel abandoned.
Betcha she wanted to go into some sort of new identity program. He said no thank you, honey. She said well then, dear, I am out of here cuz as long as I am with you I am a target. He chose to be free but hunted instead of free but nonexistent. Seems like a plausible scenario. The look on her face at the end of his trial was a do-or-die look and his parents were with her but looking back at George to see what he was going to do. Was that the moment of choosing and they were waiting to see if last time see him? Sometimes fiction is very close to reality.. .. .. ..