Michael Strahan Debacle

Discussion in 'Sports' started by porcelainsnowbird, Jun 26, 2006.

  1. porcelainsnowbird

    porcelainsnowbird Restricted

    It's too bad all their dirty linens are being aired so publicly. Things have been going downhill since she tried to take that $3.5 million last year. I think the wife will come out ahead in this anyways.

    http://www.nypost.com/news/regional...news_patrick_gallahue__post_correspondent.htm

    SHE WILL DESTROY YOU
    By PATRICK GALLAHUE Post Correspondent

    June 26, 2006 -- HOUSTON - Michael Strahan's doting dad said he always knew his superstar son's wife, Jean, would "destroy" him - and even penned a letter warning him not to marry her, the father says in an explosive interview with The Post.

    "Jean is a sick, evil lady," Gene "Willie" Strahan, 69, wrote to the Giants linebacker.

    He said he sent the letter to his son in 1999, three years after struggling to put his fears on paper. The protective father, who accused Jean of dismissing their close-knit family as "ghetto-ish" and "uneducated," also said he warned his son that she was "going to destroy you."

    "Mike was mad at me. My wife was mad at me, and Jean, of course, was mad at me," he said. "But I had to get it off my chest. Jean is sick. I've been praying for her for years. It's a shame."

    The standout athlete's first wife also lashed out at her replacement, saying Jean Strahan once angrily exclaimed about her two stepkids, "I wish they were dead."

    Michael Strahan's father and mother, Louise Strahan - and his sympathetic ex-wife, Wanda Hutchins Strahan - met with The Post to discuss the divorce battle involving the 33-year-old defensive end.
    Michael and Jean Strahan are due back in court today.

    In stark contrast to Jean Strahan's shocking allegations that the standout sacker was a adulterer, liar and indifferent dad, his Texas clan rallied to his defense.

    Even his ex-wife says she cares for him - and that he's a good father to their two children.

    "We're good friends. We're parents. That's the bottom line," Hutchins Strahan, 33, said in her first public statement since their own divorce was finalized in 1996.

    She glossed over claims by her own mother that the football star abandoned their kids, Tanita, 14, and Michael Jr., 11, after they split.
    "It was a personal issue between Michael and me. It's water under the bridge," Hutchins Strahan insisted.

    She also denied reports that Strahan - who allegedly cheated on Jean with a Canadian cutie he called "Cupcake" - had also stepped out during his first marriage.

    "I believe him when he says that he was faithful, because when he commits to something, he doesn't waver," Hutchins Strahan said, explaining that they split because "we were simply too young."

    For now, the elder Strahan is stressed about what the current divorce battle is doing to his son's toddler twin daughters by Jean.

    "I am really concerned about her being stable enough mentally to raise these two babies," he said.

    Gene Strahan said he never really clicked with the petite blonde, whom his son met while she was working at a New York skin-care salon.
    "Our spirits clashed a bit, but I never disrespected her," the retired army major said. That is, until he began hearing comments she made to friends that the family was beneath her.

    "She said we were uneducated and ghetto-ish," the father said. "She would just say nasty things to me."

    The elder Strahan said he felt his son's new love was coming between them; he said that he and Strahan had always played sports and fished together, and that he recalled each of his son's games.

    "Mike and I have always been close. Jean tried to destroy that," he claimed, saying it was that realization that led him to write a no-holds-barred letter to his son.

    As they recalled the rift that opened between the modest family and their superstar son - which the family blames on Jean Strahan - family members said many of the fights centered around money.

    Jean Strahan, they charged, used to accuse them of trying to bleed their son for his football loot. His contract is worth $46 million.

    One of the worst fights, the father said, came Christmas 2002, when he tried to clear the air with Jean once and for all.

    "Just the way she was treating me was what made me want to talk to her," he said.

    "She said, 'Just because your son is a pro ballplayer you think you are going to get a lot of money.' "

    But the dad said he now believes it was Jean Strahan who was on the lookout for a payout.

    "All she saw was an athlete with super financial" status, he said.
    The Strahan family insists the current divorce battle will not come between them.

    Even despite the latest round of explosive charges by Jean Strahan.
    On Tuesday, she told reporters that after her marriage fell apart, her husband moved in with best buddy and "Celebrity Fit Club" M.D., Ian Smith, and that the two enjoyed an "alternative lifestyle" together.
    "She's saying he's running around, he's a homosexual, he's taking pictures," the elder Strahan said. "Making these kinds of statements, you destroy people, which is what she is trying to do."

    Michael Strahan's first wife agreed, saying the latest cracks about her ex's sexuality were simply over the top.

    "It's not right. It's a divorce, and it gets ugly," Hutchins Strahan said, adding that she worried about the effect the vitriol was having on the kids.

    Hutchins Strahan also lashed out at Jean for accusing Michael of acting like she never existed; he admitted in court he couldn't remember her birthday, the date their 20-month-old twins, Isabella and Sophia, were born and birthdays cards she had given him.

    "That's just his nature, that he needs reminding," Hutchins Strahan said. "He's busy, he has a lot of places to be and commitments to keep."
    Chided the dad: "Who's that sensitive? . . . They're trashing Michael - they're trashing him."

    Hutchins Strahan is unforgiving of her marital replacement.
    "For years, she liked to think she didn't need to be confronted with our children," Hutchins Strahan railed.

    She said Michael was prevented from having contact with the kids while married to Jean - echoing a claim the athlete had made in court Tuesday.
    Michael's parents - whose home is filled with drawings from and pictures of the children from their son's two marriages - said the fallout from his first breakup was nothing like that of his second.

    "There were problems between Wanda and Michael, but we never lost love for one another. It was never like that with Jean," the elder Strahan said.

    Louise Strahan bragged that Michael Jr. and Tanita are both straight-A students. Michael Jr., who tries to hide a smile identical to his gap-toothed dad, is a talented artist and baseball player, she added.

    But she appeared devastated recalling how Jean used to try to keep her son from his children with Wanda.

    "She didn't want Michael to acknowledge his children, and every time he did, it was a big problem," the mom claimed. "She didn't make it easy. She didn't want anything to do with them."

    In her most shocking claim, Hutchins Strahan said Jean Strahan verbalized her death wish for her stepkids to the children's cousin while the couple was visiting Michael Jr. and Tanita in Germany. The family had lived there until Strahan bought them a house near their grandparents recently.

    Jean Strahan's lawyer, Ellen Marshall, responded yesterday, "The record is sealed, and Jean doesn't want to make a comment."

    Hutchins Strahan shows no signs of jealousy that her ex and his soon-to-be ex are fighting over millions, while Hutchins Strahan receives just $2,500 a month for raising their two children.

    "We all get what we deserve. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but it will eventually happen," she said.

    She called the $163,000 house Strahan bought for her and the kids "nice" and added, "We're happy."

    In Montclair, N.J., her counterpart is battling for the 30-room mansion that is part of the $14 million she claims she is entitled to under a prenup.

    The Texas clan does not approve of her lavish lifestyle - including a court-documented $26,688 splurge on photographs for Jean and Michael Strahan's twin babies.

    When a Post photographer started taking a picture of Louise Strahan, she turned to her family and quipped, "I heard photographers make a lot of money - 20-something thousand for pictures."

    patrick.gallahue@nypost.com
     
  2. hellspawn72

    hellspawn72 Member

    WOW. I had heard that Strahan was having his problems in his marriage and he was on his way to divorce, but I never knew it was this bad. He was on "Quite Frankly" with Stephen A. a few months back and talked briefly about it, saying that even he couldn't believe how bad his wife had gotten. He seems like a nice dude that you'd hate to see bad things happen to good folks. But maybe that's the life of a major sports figure, especially if they black. Seem like everybody's out for you.
     
  3. porcelainsnowbird

    porcelainsnowbird Restricted

    She is showing Michael what time it is, and she will not be denied.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/430387p-362754c.html

    Strahan: Wife hurled F-bombs at me
    BY AUSTIN FENNER and DAVE GOLDINER
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS


    Michael Strahan angrily testified yesterday that his now-estranged wife launched into an expletive-laden tirade over a credit card the night before their twins' christening ceremony.

    His patience wearing thin, the Giants sack king described how Jean Strahan strode into their Montclair mansion and lit into him - as Michael Strahan's father watched.

    "She comes in, looks at me and said, 'You motherf-----. You want to f--- with me? You canceled my f------ card,'" Strahan said as his nasty divorce case rolled on.

    "I'll give you something to f--- with," he testified she said before stalking out.

    Michael Strahan, who sparred several times with his wife's lawyer, said he was dumbfounded by the March 2005 outburst, just days before their marriage imploded.

    He said he only canceled the prestigious American Express black card after Jean Strahan told him she didn't want it.

    "I didn't say one word," the Big Blue star said, avoiding eye contact with his estranged wife. "It's embarrassing to get cursed out in front of your own father."

    The dramatic revelation came as Michael Strahan's legal team issued a statement blasting Jean Strahan for saying he leads an "alternative lifestyle," even though she later denied meaning he is gay.

    "Most of her out-of-court statements are blatantly false and made solely to attempt to tarnish Mr. Strahan's reputation," his lawyers said in a statement.

    Inside the courtroom, Michael Strahan fended off more pointed questions about his free-spending ways from his wife's lawyer.

    Marshall ticked off expenses like five trips to Phoenix, four-figure memberships in fancy clubs, splurges on rugs from ABC Carpet and an $800,000 townhouse near Giants Stadium.

    Things got even nastier when Marshall asked Strahan why he bought a $4,500 Versailles watch - and he retorted that the timepiece was for himself.

    "I'll wear it next time, if you like," he snapped.

    Perhaps tiring of playing the part of affable tackling dummy, Michael Strahan aggressively hit back when Marshall questioned him about buying furnishings for his new place after the couple's acrimonious breakup.
    He told Marshall he had to build a new life from scratch after leaving the century-old mansion in Montclair where he and Jean Strahan lived.

    "When you're out on your own, my dad said, you have to account for everything, including the Q-Tips," he said.

    Jean Strahan says she should get about $14 million under the terms of a prenuptial agreement signed before their storybook wedding in 1999. He puts the tab at half that.

    Originally published on June 27, 2006
     
  4. Lexington

    Lexington New Member

    @porcelain, I fully expect her to win this settlement. If Strahan had given in to her demands and honored their agreement all his business would never have been publicized. The wife does look suspect for marrying him after he secretly taped her sister undressing then accepted $30,000 from him.

    STRAHAN GOES WILD ON OFFENSE
    By JEANE MacINTOSH

    July 19, 2006 -- Emotions boiled over at the Michael Strahan divorce trial yesterday, as the Giants' sack king and his wife spent their seventh anniversary locked in a court battle that brought her to tears and prompted him to explode in rage at the media.

    Jean Strahan said after court that the feelings prompted by the now sorrowful date made it difficult for her to control herself on the stand.

    "I just feel so sad," she told The Post. "Normally [on the anniversary], I would be getting ready to go out to dinner with this man who was so crazy in love with me."

    "But there I was, on the witness stand, being cross-examined by his lawyer. It's heartbreaking."

    The courthouse fireworks began when Jean started weeping uncontrollably as her husband's lawyer grilled her about taking $3.2 million from a joint bank account shortly before he filed for divorce last year. His side says the removal of the funds was the final straw that made him end their marriage.

    "There were many reason why I did it," she said on the stand, starting to sob. "He asked me for a divorce like 80 times. On Jan. 14 [2005] he was talking about trying to have another baby.

    "Then he went away to Toronto [where Strahan's alleged mistress, Nicole "Cupcake" D'Oliveira, lives] and four days later he was talking about a divorce.

    "I was just shocked."

    As she recalled his alleged infidelity, Jean Strahan's sobs turned to full-on weeping. This prompted Judge James Convery to call for a brief recess, so she could collect herself before her cross-examination continued.

    While she sat at the defense table - doing deep breathing exercises in an effort to calm down - the star Giants defensive end exited the courtroom for a bathroom break.

    But instead of freshening up, the normally cool deodorant pitchman blew his top as a photographer approached him.

    "You're not my friends," Strahan snarled. "You probably have no friends."

    At previous divorce trial dates, Strahan has smiled for the cameras, and his defense had occasionally requested copies of photos from press photographers. But yesterday, the gap-toothed gridiron great got positively defensive.

    "Great thing about this is - when this is over you guys are still trash," the hulking NFL star said.

    He then burst back into the courtroom by pushing hard on the swinging doors, startling Ellen Marshal, his wife's attorney.

    "Don't let me get in your way," she said.

    Vikki Ziegler, one of Strahan's attorneys, said the football player was getting frustrated at having his picture taken as he enters court each day. "He's tired of it," she said.

    The emotional energy flowed on a day that otherwise focused on cold, hard numbers.

    Strahan's attorney Robert Penza grilled Jean Strahan about the $550,000 she has spent in the time since her husband filed for divorce.

    Strahan's lawyers said her spending included $30,000 on clothes and $23,000 for photos of their children. But she said that such largess was actually modest by the standards of the couple's normally extravagant spending.

    "I think I spent less than any other year I was with Michael," she said.

    And for the first time, Penza revealed how much money Jean was seeking in child support - $325,000 a year.

    She said some of the money would be spent on items such as handbags - without which she says the couple's 20-month-old twin daughters Isabella and Sophia can't live.

    "They like to be accessorized," Jean said. "Isabella doesn't like to leave the house without a purse. Michael knows that."
    :lol:

    Penza also scored a big win when he got Jean to admit that she knew Strahan was keeping money in a joint bank account for the two of them. The divorce trial centers on $14 million that Jean says Strahan was supposed to put aside for her in a separate account under the terms of their prenuptial agreement.

    Strahan claims he owes half that amount, because he put the money in a joint account shared by the two. He says he did this because she never asked him to set the money aside.

    SICKO STRAHAN TAPED MY SIS: WIFE
    By JEANE MacINTOSH

    July 13, 2006 -- The Michael Strahan divorce trial turned into an episode of America's Sleaziest Home Videos yesterday as it was revealed that the Giants star made a $30,000 payoff to his wife shortly after she caught him secretly videotaping her sister inside their home.

    Jean Strahan, who said in court papers that the taping occurred while sister Denise was undressing, testified that her sack-machine hubby did his illicit filmmaking while they were living in East Stroudsburg, Pa., roughly two years before their 1999 marriage.

    "I found, in our house, video equipment . . . and I learned he was taping my sister," she said under questioning by her lawyer Ellen Marshall in Newark Family Court. "I moved out when I found the equipment."
    She added that a $30,000 deposit related to the taping was made by Strahan into a bank account that the North Dakota native kept in her home state.

    Before she could expand on the subject of the payoff, Michael Strahan's lawyer, Robert Penza, objected, and Judge James Convery cut Jean off from talking about it further.

    But the NFL star's wife had earlier claimed in court papers that the gap-toothed grid great placed the video camera in a clock radio inside a room where her younger sister was staying.

    Police in East Stroudsburg said they had investigated the allegations, and searched the house, but never brought charges.

    In the blockbuster divorce trial, Jean Strahan says a prenup entitles her to $14 million from the father of her twin girls, but the Giant says he only owes her $7 million.

    The day started with Michael Strahan's spending habits being aired - including a forensic accountant admitting he paid $4,007 to a prominent plastic surgeon for work on him.

    He also revealed secret high-end trips he took with various women.
    One trip was a getaway to Phoenix, Ariz. - which he originally claimed to be for business - but which he later admitted was for "pleasure."
    In an effort to show just how much "pleasure" he was getting out of the trip, Marshall tried to show a video of the defensive end holding hands with alleged mistress Nicole "Cupcake" D'Oliveira during the trip.
    Penza vehemently objected.

    As the lawyers fought, an exasperated Convery refused to let the tape be shown - and Michael Strahan smirked and laughed the whole time.
    Strahan later admitted to taking trips with two other women to the Caribbean shortly after he split from his wife.

    One trip was to St. Maarten with a woman named Theresa Higgonbothom, who once sold him antique chairs. The other was to an undisclosed island with a woman named Lindsey Dierling.

    When Marshall asked if that trip was for business or pleasure, Strahan said "some business."

    "What business did you do with her," Marshall asked.
    "That's our business," he said with a smile.

    Jean Strahan then took the stand and told the court the ugly history of their marriage - which started from the time they first met at a book signing in 1996.

    She said that she only found out he was married after he talked her into co-signing with him to buy a new Mercedes - and an insurance company rep called to tell her he had a wife.

    "I certainly did [confront him], it wasn't a good conversation" she said.
    Much of the disagreement in the couple's divorce comes from a provision in their prenup that says Strahan must put aside 20 percent of his earnings each year for his wife in lieu of alimony.

    He said he never did it because she didn't ask for it. But yesterday, she said that she asked for the money several times, usually around the time the football season started.

    While embarrassingly bringing up the fact he once got a sperm test when she couldn't get pregnant, Jean also said her husband hounded her throughout their marriage in an effort to change the prenup.

    She also claimed that once, in 2001, he had a lawyer write her a letter that said he wanted to change the 20 percent set aside enshrined in the prenup to "zero percent."

    "I told [Michael] I wasn't redoing anything - I said we were trying to get pregnant," she testified.

    As she recalled this, she started crying, prompting Strahan to laugh and turn to the media seating section with a smile.


    They mentioned this guy is a friend of Strahan's.

    http://www.nypost.com/news/regional...chram__alex_ginsburg_and_cynthia_r__fagen.htm

    July 14, 2006 -- A former New York Giants cornerback was arraigned in Brooklyn yesterday on charges he brutally tackled his petite girlfriend and left her sporting a black eye and a swollen lip.

    The battered strawberry blonde told cops that the 5-foot-10, 182-pounder spiked her like a football and "threw [her] on the bed and did repeatedly punch [her] about the face and body," according to the police complaint.
     
  5. Soulthinker

    Soulthinker Well-Known Member

    I read that story in the New York Times. His wife is hot however.
     
  6. Lexington

    Lexington New Member

    Here's the latest chapter. Even though Jean has been crowing and gloating about "going to Disney World" and she doesn't care how he coughs up her money, Michael could short circuit his career and future jobs if he doesn't show the utmost restraint.

    GIANT GOES NUTS
    By JANA WINTER

    January 15, 2007 -- Giants superstar Michael Strahan last night angrily tried to confront the ex-wife who sacked him for $15 million in a divorce settlement, as he dropped off their kids at her New Jersey mansion, sources told The Post.

    Montclair cops had to be called to Jean Strahan's ritzy home after the hulking Giant went ballistic and angrily demanded to see his former spouse - all while the pair's 2-year-old twin daughters were in the back of his luxury SUV, the sources said.

    "If Jean's not here in five minutes, there's gonna be trouble," the defensive end warned Jean Strahan's live-in carpenter in the driveway of her home, the sources said.

    Strahan seethed as he sat in his black Cadillac Escalade - with a gorgeous gal pal in the front seat beside him, and the little girls in the back - and was told by the carpenter that Jean was on an errand. The worker offered to bring the children into the house after their custody visit with their dad, the sources said.

    "I'm not giving them to you. It has to be the nanny," Strahan said.

    "The nanny's off on Sunday. You know that," the carpenter said.

    "I paid for the nanny. Where is she?" Strahan reportedly said before warning of "trouble" if Jean didn't get home soon.

    Strahan then jumped out of the vehicle - apparently violating a custody agreement - and started arguing more with the man, sources said. The kids were taken inside, and Strahan finally drove off - but only circled the block.

    He came back and parked his idling car in front of the house, the sources said.

    Police were called and surrounded Strahan's car.

    He left after about an hour of questioning, and after a stunned Jean returned from a meeting with her lawyer. She was visibly upset as she rushed inside, past her ex-hubby and his mystery passenger, who looked a lot like Strahan gal pal Nicole "Cupcake" D'Oliveira.

    Michael Strahan could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not return calls. Neither Jean Strahan nor her lawyer could be reached.

    On Friday, a judge upheld the couple's prenup, which handed her $15.3 million and hundreds of thousands more in child support.

    According to the couple's custody agreement, Strahan is allowed to drive onto her property only to retrieve and drop off the kids.

    "The husband may not leave his vehicle," it says. Instead, he must hand over the kids to Jean, her nanny "or another responsible person she may select."

    The former spouses can communicate only via e-mail, the agreement states.

    A police source said cops had been called to the house over an "incident involving the ex-husband."

    Additional reporting by Jeane MacIntosh
     
  7. Lexington

    Lexington New Member

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/nfl/03/24/bc.fbn.strahandivorce.ap/index.html

    In January, Judge James Convery awarded Jean Strahan $15.3 million and set child support at $18,000 a month. Michael Strahan has paid more than half of the money but he is arguing that the remaining $6.5 million is too much.

    The Superior Court Appellate Division granted the temporary stay Friday, but has not decided whether the money should be denied to Jean Strahan entirely, as her ex-husband requested.

    "Jean is disappointed by the ruling, but she is confident that when the Appellate Division hears all the facts, it will affirm the lower court's decision," Ellen Marshall, Jean Strahan's lawyer, told the Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday's editions.
     

Share This Page