Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott’s Marriage Has Been Plagued by Personal and Legal Troubles for Years
Can we tell you a Stori? The relationship between Beverly Hills, 90210 alum Tori Spelling and Canadian chef-turned-actor Dean McDermott started in scandal and only got more dramatic after they tied the knot. With speculation swirling about Tori’s well-being, we’re recapping all the chaos that preceded the latest drama. Check out the woeful timeline below.
July 2005: Though they’re both married to other people, Tori and Dean meet and immediately start an affair on the set of the Lifetime TV movie Mind Over Murder, as Tori explains nine years later on their reality show True Tori, in reference to Dean cheating on her.
“Maybe I have a hard time with that [blaming] part because that’s how I met Dean,” Tori says in the show. “I mean, he was married … We had sex the first night we met … It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, just get your rocks off, have sex with someone just to have sex,’ you know? It was a conscious decision. Like, fell head over heels for you.”
October 2013: Eight years into their marriage — and after welcoming their first four children — the couple opens up about their financial issues in a People interview. “We’re in the entertainment business and things change year to year,” Tori explains. “We don’t have a series on the air right now, so we have to be more restrictive of what we can spend, just like anyone who doesn’t currently have a steady job.”
Talking with Entertainment Tonight, Tori also cops up to her own money mistakes. “Just because I’m on TV doesn’t mean that I don’t make financial choices that aren’t good,” she says. “They were really bad ones.”
December 2013: Us Weekly reports Dean cheated on Tori with a 28-year-old named Emily Goodhand while on a Toronto press tour for his hosting gig on Chopped Canada.
As Tori later recounts on True Tori, “I got a call from my publicist and she said, ‘I just want to tell you something. It’s a girl, and she’s claiming that she had an affair with Dean in Toronto when he was there. The girl has come forward. She’s put her name to the story. She’s giving all the details about her two-day affair with your husband in Toronto, and it’s going to come out next week — Christmas.'”
February 2014: Dean heads to rehab after issuing a public apology to his family. “I am truly sorry for the mistakes I have made and for the pain I’ve caused my family,” he says in the statement to People. “I take full responsibility for my actions and have voluntarily checked myself into a treatment center to address some health and personal issues. I am grateful to be getting the help I need so I can become the husband and father my family deserves.”
April 2014: Lifetime releases footage from True Tori‘s Season 2 premiere, showing Dean and Tori tearfully discussing his infidelity. “That’s my worst nightmare — I cheated on my wife,” Dean explains. “I was out of control. Sex was an escape, just like drugs and alcohol.”
Tori says, “I can never give him enough sex. He’s never going to be happy with just me. I’m well aware this might not have a happy ending.”
September 2015: Tori sues hibachi chain Benihana after allegedly suffering “deep second and third degree burns” when she fell on a grill at the restaurant in Encino, CA, that April. She reportedly underwent skin grafts to treat the burns.
January 2016: The same month Tori and Dean say their marriage is “in the best place it’s ever been,” American Express sues Tori for payment on her alleged $38k credit card debt. In the suit, the company claims Tori hadn’t made a payment since June 2015. Eight months after Amex files suit, a judge orders the TV star to pay up.
July 2016: A month after Tori exclusively tells In Touch her and Dean’s marriage is “stronger than ever,” the state of California places a tax lien of nearly $260k on their property. The lien relates to 2014 state taxes the couple allegedly failed to pay.
October 2016: American Express sues Tori again, this time for an alleged $88k debt on one of her canceled credit cards. “No part of said sum has been paid, although demand for payment has been made,” the court documents claim.
October 2017: Dean’s ex-wife, Mary Jo Eustace, files an affidavit for contempt with the Superior Court of California, claiming Dean’s child support payments to her are overdue. “Dean told Mary Jo that she wasn’t going to be happy until he was ‘in jail, being someone’s b–ch,'” a source told In Touch that June. “The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is also officially investigating him for being a deadbeat dad, and he could lose his driver’s license and passport for failure to pay.”
March 2018: Almost exactly a year after the birth of Tori and Dean’s fifth child, Los Angeles Police Department responds to a “female mental illness” call at their house. In Touch learns the cops came to the house a day prior because Tori mistook Dean for a home invader. “She freaked because Dean had not been home for a few days,” a neighbor tells exclusively tells In Touch. “He left to clear the air after one of their fights. They really are the neighbors from hell.”
The source adds, “They argue several times a week. Their fights can be heard throughout the whole neighborhood. Tori’s yelling and hysterical crying are unmistakable.” Oof. With all this drama, it certainly sounds like the couple is no-tori-ous on their block.
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