On Tuesday, about two weeks after Danny Masterson received a 30-year-to-life prison sentence for raping two women, his wife, Bijou Phillips, filed for divorce. Her attorney, Peter Lauzon, said in a statement that Phillips’s “priority remains” with the couple’s daughter, and that Masterson’s criminal case “has been unimaginably hard on the marriage and the family.”
The decision seemingly represents an about-face from just 12 days ago, when sources supposedly close to Phillips told People that she had “no plans” to divorce Masterson. Court documents show that Phillips cited the couple’s date of separation as “TBD” and say the marriage ended because of “irreconcilable differences.” She’s also asking for spousal support and full custody of their daughter, though she would allow visitation with Masterson.
Phillips and Masterson met in 2005 and married in 2011. But in 2017, five women accused Masterson of raping them in the early 2000s and alleged that the Church of Scientology — to which Masterson belongs — kept them from reporting the actor. While Masterson vehemently denied the allegations, the LAPD began an investigation and charged him with raping three women between 2001 and 2003. The first round of proceedings against him ended in a mistrial last December because a jury couldn’t reach verdicts on three counts of forcible rape. The retrial took place this year and ended with a guilty verdict on two counts of rape in May.
Phillips supported Masterson through the trial and retrial, always walking into court with him. Ahead of his sentencing, more than 50 people — including Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher — submitted letters to the judge lobbying for leniency. In hers, Phillips wrote that Masterson was a “life-saving partner,” an “extraordinary husband,” and a “devoted father to our daughter.”
