Eva Longoria, Tony Parker Divorce Could Get Messy

Now that Eva Longoria has filed for divorce from Tony Parker, we can expect more details to keep spilling about this case. As most of us know by now, the reason for the “irreconcilable differences” cited in her filing are likely due to Parker’s “sexting” with former teammate Brent Barry’s wife, Erin.

The couple has a prenuptial agreement, singed in 2007 and they even updated it in 2009, but Longoria is seeking spousal support despite the fact that she is a millionaire in her own right. Parker just signed a four-year, $50 million contract extension with the San Antonio Spurs. Clearly he’s got some extra cash around that Longoria would love to get a piece of.

Here’s where it could get messy. Someone may need to answer the question as to whether or not sexting constitutes infidelity, and whether or not Longoria is entitled to more money because of those accusations.

As always, we turned to our resident legal expert, Booter, to break this one down for us and let us know how things could play out. Here’s what he had to say:

While somewhat reprehensible, Mr. Parker’s conduct should not cause him any legal harm per se. Under California law, where Ms. Longoria filed for divorce, a party seeking a divorce does not need to prove the other spouse was at fault. Instead, California and a number of other states have adopted “no-fault” divorce, which was first enacted by the Bolsheviks following the 1918 Decree of Divorce.

Under this set-up, one of the parties to the marriage merely must allege irreconcilable differences. Therefore, Ms. Longoria does not need to allege and prove that Mr. Parker was committing acts of infidelity via his racy texts with Mrs. Barry. Similarly, the fact that Mr. Parker may have been engaging in such activities does not trigger any “fault” based penalties under the law.

While not triggering any penalty under the law, Mr. Parker’s alleged texts may still cause him trouble. Mr. Parker and Ms. Longoria entered into a prenuptial agreement prior to their fairytale wedding in a French castle. While the details of the agreement have not been made public, such agreements usually contain provisions governing each parties rights and obligations should the couple not live happily ever after.

It would not be surprising if Mr. Parker and Ms. Longoria’s agreement contained penalty provisions should either party engage in infidelities leading to divorce. Under such language, the aggrieved party would likely be entitled to an extra amount of money or property above and beyond their 50 percent of the marital property estate. Even if Mr. Parker and Ms. Longoria’s agreement lacked such language, Mr. Parker’s dalliances have certainly left him in an extremely weak bargaining position.

So Tony Parker sexily texted his former teammate’s wife and it could cost him millions. Nice work buddy. Can’t wait until someone makes those texts public.