Stephanie March and Bobby Flay’s divorce drama is so epic. We haven’t had a divorce battle this contentious in a while, especially considering the fact that Stephanie and Bobby don’t even have children. They’re just fighting about money and real estate, which makes it more fun for all of us in the cheap seats because we don’t have to clutch our pearls and shriek “Won’t someone think of the children?!” As we learned last week, Flay and March are in court right now, trying to work out the financial aspect of the divorce. There was a leak that March is trying to nullify the prenup at this point because, to March’s way of thinking, she significantly contributed input to Flay’s financial success.
Throughout the divorce drama, we’ve kept hearing bits and pieces about how March’s health has been struggling, and that’s why she hasn’t worked much in the past five years, and isn’t it just terrible that Flay cheated on his physically ailing wife, etc? Well, now Flay’s camp wants you to know something: March’s health issues are just about her breast implants.
Bobby Flay has taken an incredibly cheap shot at his estranged wife, telling the judge in their divorce case that any medical problems she has are the result of vanity … specifically a boob job.
We’re told as part of her argument to invalidate their prenup, Stephanie March says she’s been plagued by well-publicized medical problems, including a burst appendix and 3 deep infections. As a result, she says she’s unable to work as an actress and the prenup would create an undo financial hardship.
Bobby has responded to Stephanie’s argument, but he got surprisingly detailed, saying the infections were the result of breast enhancement surgery. It’s pretty clear the point he’s making is that Stephanie’s problems are her own doing … choosing to go under the knife for the sake of vanity. Stephanie also took a shot at Bobby, saying revelations of his alleged infidelity have compromised her health and mental state.
As TMZ reported, the prenup provides a relatively meager $5k a month in support. Stephanie claims she was a key reason Bobby was able to build his empire.
After watching a few minutes of E!’s Botched, I have a new and terrible understanding of bad plastic surgeries and the kind of damage that can be done to one’s body in the name of “elective surgery.” I think it’s possible that March had health problems – specifically the infections? – from a boob job, although the burst appendix was likely a separate issue altogether. And my first thought was honestly, “I bet Flay wanted her to get those new boobs.” And now he’s using it as a slam in their divorce. For the love of God… he just needs to give her a better settlement!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
There is no end to this used tampon’s douchebaggery is there? One reason I don’t watch the food channel. Garbage like he is.
Bobby Flay is indeed a d-bag if his mouth-piece is spilling this. Settle, Bobby. Make this go away. Every new headline makes you look like a terrible human being.
What have tampons ever done to deserve that comparison?
+1 Tampons are useful.
@Cannibell?
Used ones? What exactly do you do with them…? 😀
+1,000!
My first thought was the same vis a vis his buying her the boobs or encouraging her to get them and now slamming her for it.
My first thought was that he pressured her into them, too.
Or at the very least dropped hints about how awesome new boobs would be and how her career could benefit.
Not nice, probably not fair, but my first thought.
Also, she looks like Sarah Paulson’s sister.
The prettier sister.
He is seriously one of the most unattractive men I’ve ever seen. He’s downright fugly. You took prime years of her life and you broke your vows while doing so. Give her a better settlement and then fuck off.
WORD UP.
Haha! My thoughts exactly! Normally I’d be screaming 5k a month is plenty for someone without children, but he’s such a douche and cheated on her multiple times so he needs to pay, he can afford it.
Yeah, I go back and forth on this. She was foolish to sign the prenup. But he is acting like such a giant dbag; this publicity can’t be doing him any favors. He should peel off a little more money and make it go away.
He looks like a deranged ferret.
& has the personality and character to go along with it.
5K a month with no kids would constitute financial hardship?
Right? Plus a million dollars. Cry me a river.
Right? Plus a million dollars. Cry me a river. And give me a break, she chose not to work. None of the one-off health problems she listed cost her work. They’re both gross.
I’m w/ you both and am offended by those who say that’s poverty level. Gimme a break. Unless one is rich and entitled, that sounds like a nice settlement, plus she was an idiot for not signing a pre-nup. But, of course, I’m just a regular person and I’ve had to work my entire life for what I have.
On the other hand, Bobby Flay is a Boob.
Agree
Totally agree. Just because she married an ass, doesn’t mean she is above 5k a month. When I pointed out before that 5k is better then what most get, I was told it is nothing in NYC. Guess what? There are other places to live. If she is smart, she’ll move somewhere cheaper and save up while planning her next move.
Correction to post above: *She was an idiot for agreeing to sign a pre-nup that clearly was not favorable to her.
Im probably in the minority but 5k a month should be enough with real estate. Since no kids are involved I find it greedy. It’s not like it was well known he was a cheater, March was naive to not get a better prenup.
Both of them have left a bad taste in my mouth the way they are handling the divorce and trashing eachother. Thank god they don’t have children because this is messy and I would be screaming wont someone please think of the children
Anyone who thinks 5K a month is a lo has, never lived in NYC. That is a joke. No one can live on that.
If someone has a home that’s paid for, it’s a joke if they can’t live on $5,000/month, even in NYC.
Re read my comment.
I Said 5k with housing. I have friends currently in NYC living on way less than that and paying for housing costs and they are not having a financial hardship. So it’s very possible thousands are doing it in that city every damn day. Now if March wants to maintain her lavish lifestyle then she might have problems but in no way is that a hardship like she is claiming.
A studio in a decent (and I’m talking somewhere like Rego Park in Queens here, not the UES) neighborhood is at minimum 1500 a month, and that’s if you’re extremely lucky and willing to live in a closet. Before I moved back to Ohio from NYC, we paid 2500 for a tiny one bedroom in Yorkville.
5k a month to live in NYC is a joke.
It’s a joke more commenters don’t read. Samantha as previous pointed out if she gets real estate than 5k should be more than enough. She is very likely to get real restate sounds more like arguing who gets what real estate. As you stated, if rent is so expensive that’s one real big expense she won’t have and then she will have 5k for living and necessities like food water and hydro.
Those saying it’s not enough are nuts!
If she doesn’t get real estate that would be crazy and then yes she should be compensated for that in money but again that would be nuts for her to walk away with no real estate at all.
5k is $60,000 per year before taxes and alimony is taxed. Considering her lifestyle while married, that is a gigantic cut. Given how much he is worth, that is pennies to him and I don’t blame her for fighting it although I’m not sure she should have agreed to it in the first place.
I think that is the crux of the matter, at least for me: she signed the pre-nup. Yes, Flay is a rich, cheap jerk, but he didn’t do anything illegal, in regards to her. Plus, since she is not working at this time, she could move somewhere cheaper.
Yes. Even without a mortgage, she has property taxes & perhaps condo or co-op fees, so 5k is diddly squat.
5K is fine for most of us but not the lifestyle she is used to enjoying.
Too bad though. She signed the prenup. She can either live on what she gets or go back to work to supplement the alimony.
I feel slightly bad for her since this was a long marriage. But she signed the prenup and never renegotiated it based on the length of marriage. It’s a legal contract and she needs to respect that.
Yeah but… If she signed the prenup in good faith that he was interested in making their marriage work but then he goes and cheats with every bobble head FN star that crosses his path, he’s trying to screw her and she deserves more.
Plus she has been caring for her mother while married to him right? She might be fighting it so she can continue to care for her as well.
She could have included a cheating clause or had the amount escalate based on the years of marriage.
I sympathize with this POV and her desire to care for her mother. But to be objective, her mother is not his responsibility. I think she can use the $1 million to buy a house outside of NYC and what’s left plus $5k per month to care for her mom if she doesn’t want to work.
She would need to change her lifestyle but it’s doable.
It is always mind blowing how LOVEing someone can turn into such ugliness.. I think some of this nastiness was there at the start. It had to be. And yes it is best that there were no children. I can imagine the fight for the children would be insane.
For some reason I thought they had 2 children. I wonder why they never had kids though.
She also has endometreosis which can be connected to several other autoimmune diseases/issues. Very painful.
I live in NY on way less than 60k per year, and that includes housing costs. There’s no reason at all someone shouldn’t live on 60k when they don’t have any housing costs.
“Undo” financial hardship? Lol
My husband cheated on me and was abusive. We didn’t have a pre-nup, and the state we lived in takes fault in the break up of a marriage into consideration, so our assets were divided 60-40, with me getting 60. That would have been great had we been Bobby Flay rich, but we weren’t, so it gave me a little nest egg, but I couldn’t live on it. I didn’t get any alimony, and I didn’t want any. We didn’t have children to support, and I didn’t want to be tied to him every month or defendant on him for anything. I was 35, and perfectly capable of supporting myself, though my salary was about one fifth of his. I guess what I’m saying is I think you should get a fair division of the assets you accumulated during your marriage, and then just move on. It was her mistake to sign that prenup, and her mistake to marry him. He’s a total tool, and maybe the judge will take that into consideration, but I have limited sympathy. Part of me hopes she gets more because he’s such a creep, but she’s coming off as sort of helpless little me and greedy imo.
My mother raised me on never falling into the trap of thinking I live in a fairytale. “The Princess and the Prince kiss and that’s the end of the story, God willing you’ve got 50-60 years of life after that kiss.”
Men change. Men reveal themselves. Or in this case men are who they were when you met them and you chose to think you were special.
Regardless in the real adult world you can’t just change your mind after a decade if things don’t go your way. Let’s be real. This is crying over a woman doing better than 98% of the population. She’s pretty. She’s got celebrity friends. She’s still a part of that crowd and she’ll be getting a sum from him. With what she currently has she’d be swimming. Anything more should come from her, not Bobby’s scraps (and considering he’s fighting her now I have no doubt if he wins he’ll make her as miserable as possible with every check).
Nope. Sorry, Team Stephanie. Screw this piece of sh*t, I hope she takes him to the cleaners and back.
i’m with you.
and even if she isn’t able to get the prenup thrown out and awarded far more than the 5k monthly, i hope that every second she keeps this ugly battle in the press tortures the douche that he is.
let’s see where he lands…
january jones (is he her child’s father???), giada or his 20something assistant.
whoever she is…good luck to her.
have to say again…
he can cook…
love his restaurants.
Every single person bitching about her being greedy here would be doing the exact same thing she is by going after everything he’s got, and if you deny it you’re a damn liar. Especially after being forced to sign the prenup 3 days before the wedding.
This x infinity.
Amen.
🙂
Nah, some women get played and some don’t.
History is full of the ones who didn’t fall off a turnip truck one day and instead acted like mature adults and thought about their future.
I don’t want or need to gouge a man for money from his work while he runs my name through the gutter.
How was she forced? Maybe pressured, but wouldn’t that have been an early sign that Flay was a jerk? TBH, I don’t care if my husband would be rich or not, I wouldn’t fight dirty for what wasn’t mine in the first place. Anyway, 5k is a decent sum imo. She won’t be living in a cardboard box anytime soon.
How was she “forced?” At gunpoint? By his threatening not to marry her unless she signed it? That was HER decision, and it was a bad one. Any man who really loves you would want to give you time to take that agreement to your lawyer and work out fair terms. If he doesn’t, you know what’s really important to him, and it isn’t you.
I have to admit, I dont know if I would have been able to call his bluff. 3 days before the wedding people would already be coming into town, the potential humiliation of having to tell everyone that it was off… I don’t know that I would have been able to do that. Which is also why prenups aren’t supposed to be signed under those circumstances.
I have no horse in this race, so I’m neither cheering nor condemning March. I am however curious what happened – she made some stunningly bad financial decisions. Did she get bad advice? Is she an idiot? Did Flay make promises that he didn’t keep? How on earth did this happen?
I know it would be hard to call off the wedding, and heaven knows I’ve ignored my share of signals, but I don’t think I could ignore the timing of this or the poor terms. Who knows what happened? It may have been exactly as you’re imagining. She may have just been stunned and on the spot and signed it, or she may have been like my ex’s step-mother, who knew his father wouldn’t marry her if she didn’t sign the prenup ( which was much more fair than this one), so she signed it, then started working on him from day one to change it. I think she just thought she could get a better deal, and I’m certain she married him for his money. I don’t know what happened, because I left my ex, but I’ve always wondered. I guess we’ll never know in this case.
What’s the point of the prenup? She agreed to those terms before the marriage.
I am not familiar with the Us finances,can someone tell me what is the average monthly salary and average rent in New York?
Not NYC, but in California cities (other than SF), it would be common for a one bedroom to rent for $2000. The landlord is likely to require that your salary is 3x the rent, so 5k (which is only about 3500 after taxes) wouldn’t do it. You’d need a roommate. If you eat organic, your grocery bill is between $800-1200/month. Presumably you also want internet at home: $50-1000/month if you don’t get cable tv with it. So $5k/month isn’t living large. In NY or SF, it would require very creative money management skills, which trophy wives aren’t famous for having. But she could get a job in all her free time. Or move to a less expensive area.
Wow so much money. You got to find a super good job to afford it.
Even with a degree how possible is to find a job with a 6 or 7K monthly salary?
Scary.
Well, salaries in places like CA and NY tend to be higher than the national average, but the culture is very much about living with roommates. Or in tiny studio apartments. Shopping at thrift stores. Drinking wine from Trader Joes. Making use of the free/low cost activities: amazing parks, beaches, free days at the museums, street festivals, dive bars. Again, I’m not sure these are things what will appeal to someone who’s tasted the high life, but honestly if I had a income of $5k without working, there are plenty of hip artsy communities/college towns dotted throughout the U.S. that are a lot cheaper than living on the coast. I’d head for those. (edited to add that wifi above should’ve said $50-100, not 1,000. Not even in CA. LOL.).
Aye, a coworker of mine who was a pharmacist moved to Manhattan (ultra-expensive) awhile back. She was paying well over $3000 a month for her tiny one bedroom apartment. She was literally paying more for housing than I was making in a year. Craziness.
Depends on the neighborhood. If you live outside of Manhattan it costs less. But some neighborhoods in Brooklyn have become more expensive than the Upper East Side. And some formerly low-income neighborhoods have become really expensive. Rents in Harlem are going through the roof.
A lot of pettiness and ugliness is coming out.
Unfortunately I still haven’t heard anything concrete to challenge the prenup. Of course there’s not a no cheating clause. He cheated on two previous wives, how or why she was dumb enough to think 3rdx was the charm AND put her career on hold is a question for her therapist.
At the end of the day there just isn’t anything that really shows she deserves more money. I’m sympathetic to her but so many comments seem to just be “He hurt her, he should give her money” and “Scorned women should clean their husbands out.”
Sure. Maybe a former Hollywood actress plays the PR game right and he throws money at her to go away. Guess who that won’t work with? The no-name recently divorced woman from Idaho who’ll have to make it on a lot less with no TMZ to run to. Learn to read and be in agreement with contracts ladies, tears don’t change the law for the rest of us and feeds into that ‘the weaker sex’ bs.
Clap, clap, clap
You strike gold!
Perfect comment. How can we move forward as women when we cling to this victim status and demand money for our hurt feelings?
I feel for her, but she married a man, not a lifestyle, like it or not. He seems awful and she needs to get away, truth.
I loved her in Law & Order: SVU as A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot. She had some interesting decisions to make and played them well. She had quite the moving scene when she came back from witness protection. Hope she takes him to the cleaners the no-good cheater.
Apparently she learned nothing from her role research regarding binding contracts.
These 2 need to just stop. Let the courts deal with it because they will make the final decision. Bobby has no shame, so her calling him a cheater means nothing. He was a cheater before and she chose to marry him anyway. He shouldn’t have to “just give her a settlement”, she signed a contract, whether she likes it or not. She is supposed to get 1 million to leave the apartment, 50K (I may have imagine that, but I think it’s correct) in moving expenses, and then 5K a month. Take it and go. It’s not like she has anything going on anyway.
Team Stephanie. I just don’t like this guy. After ten years together, I feel an offer of a decent settlement would have negated all of this back and forthing.
How on earth did this happen? Stephanie made some stunningly bad financial decisions – signing the prenup, not amending the prenup after they’d been married, not having any of their assets in her name. Is she an idiot or did she get bad advice?
Appears she is an idiot, who wants to undo everything because she got hurt. Apparently you deserve more money for being cheated on. She signed it, never changed it, and never insisted on getting compensated for anything she claims she did for his business.
That didn’t exactly answer my question, though it did show how much contempt you have for her. Awesome.
I think it is pretty much the truth. She feel in love, which tends to make idiots out of most of us, made a bad deal for herself, and probably is just now realizing it. I sort of feel for her, but on the other hand thems the breaks sometimes.
I think the truth is none of us will know unless she releases a statement admitting to getting bad advice…but that again wouldn’t prove Bobby owes her a cent more and would probably work in his favor.
Contempt aside the truth is there’s little concrete evidence for why she didn’t handle business on her side except to say she didn’t.
His businesses were established before her so she didn’t contribute to it. They weren’t two young wild-eyed lovers trying to make their dreams come true, she was in her 30’s when she met him. If cheating had been in the prenup she’s be shouting it out but it’s doubtful it was since he cheated on two previous wives. They had no kids so she doesn’t need child support and so far even she hasn’t come forward to say he prevented her from working (health and her mother) which again isn’t his fault.
This is why she’s trying to paint his character so badly (mission accomplished, he was a jerk) in an effort to gain sympathy. Because there’s nothing to legally sway a judge to abolish a legal document she signed and, seemingly, never cared about till the day it came into effect.
It’s not like it particularly matters, but I’m curious. By all accounts, Stephanie knew what a dog he was and dated him only after a full court press by Flay. And yet she signs that lowball prenup – it looks like it wasn’t negotiated at all, which is incredibly odd. It feels like we’re missing a piece of information.
I think it’s a possibility that the infections could be from a bad boob job. If it was from the appendix, then her PR would have said “infections from a disastrous burst appendix operation.”
So now March is saying she hasn’t worked much in the last five years after saying she’s been the key to Flay’s monetary success because of all her work in his restaurant business? So which is it? Too sick to work or an active worker?
Anyhoo, in the end, I think it’s just better for Flay to offer a settlement beyond the $1 million (housing) plus $50k (moving expenses) plus $5k/month (alimony) he’s already giving her.
But then again, I don’t think she’d accept just another million. I think she won’t accept anything less than $10 million plus all her legal fees, which I don’t think he’d ever give her.
Any kind of surgery can lead to complication, and if she has saline implants, it may be even more of a reality. Those things can serve as incubators from anything like bacteria to fungus. But yeah, this is an extremely problematic leak because it puts into question her active involvement. Not sure if it entirely puts him in a favorable light, either, though.
@ Veronica
I agree with you that it wouldn’t put him in a “favorable light.”
I’m not for him in this case, but I’m also not for her. I think she did things that were not in her own best interest and so now wants all her own mistakes fixed up by Flay.
I want to edit what I said: “Then her PR would have said…” to “Then her PR might have said…” or “should have said…”
I get the distinct impression that his people have tested the waters and know full well that everyone thought he was a dbag before all this and that public outcry will be muted given that and the absence of children. So basically it could be worth it to keep pushing for a better settlement for himself. He doesn’t have much to lose in the court of public opinion.
I think this story is just an utter tragedy. Perhaps I’m being too generous towards a woman I know absolutely nothing about, but I suspect the reason that she didn’t ever pursue a more sensible financial agreement, given the length of their relationship, was that she is just a loving, trusting person who wanted to believe the best about her husband. She was also probably a little afraid of pushing him further away if she did; she probably realized at some level that she was in a precarious position, especially not having kids. I was in a similar position myself some years; I was terrified of losing everything. And my only advice (after finally taking the plunge and accepting the poor person version of $5000 a month) is just to walk away. 10 years later, I still thank myself for that decision 🙂
Thank goodness there are no kids in this mess. My parents were as petty and vindictive as these two during their divorce, and it just made the shock of everything going down even worse.
My roommate ended up face to face with him on the subway the other day in NYC (where we live)! She didn’t talk to him but was taken aback at ending up face to face with a tv celebrity.
Bobby Flay keeps sinking lower and lower. She deserves everything for putting up with him for ten years. This has completely turned me off on watching him on Food Network. How can anyone have any respect for him as a human being after seeing how he has treated the woman he once loved and said vows to. He has an ugly soul for trashing her this way.
He sounds like an obnoxious little weasel.