Accusations fly as Strahan divorce anything but pretty

Jonathan Miller, New York Times News Service

Published July 21, 2006 at midnight

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NEWARK, N.J. — She accused her husband of beating her, secretly videotaping her sister undressing and carrying on affairs with three different women, including one nicknamed Cupcake. He complained that his wife last year spent $22,500 on photographs, $27,000 on clothes for their 20-month-old twin daughters, and $1,700 in sign language classes — even though neither daughter is hearing impaired.

This is not the usual stuff of conversations over iced lattes at a Starbucks on Valley Road in Montclair. Then again, not everyone is a star defensive end for the New York Giants, let alone one who briefly flirted with running for a local city council little more than two years ago.

So it is not surprising that the couple, Jean and Michael Strahan, who hurled lurid accusations at each other in and out of the Superior Court in Essex County during the past six weeks, were no longer man and wife as of Thursday.

Still, Jean Strahan — nee Muggli — said she planned to keep her husband’s name for the sake of their children. But just how much of her husband’s $23 million she will be able to keep is now in the hands of Judge James B. Convery.

"There’s no redeeming elements about it," said Raoul Felder, a well-known Manhattan divorce lawyer who called the couple’s tactics "mutually assured destruction."

The proximate cause for much of the rancor is a disputed premarital agreement. The 41-year-old Jean Strahan, a former cosmetics store manager, and her husband entered into a pre-nuptial agreement in 1999, the year they were married, that was to have set aside 20 percent of Michael Strahan’s earnings annually. The accumulated amount would be hers in the event of a divorce. On top of that, she says she is owed half his assets and is seeking $14 million.

But Michael Strahan’s lawyers have argued that the Strahans agreed to verbally void the arrangement shortly after their marriage, and that she is owed only $7 million of his estimated $23 million.

Most observers have noted that the salacious details of the Strahans’ marriage are largely beside the point in divorce court. New Jersey is a no-fault divorce state, meaning that no matter how bad the actions of one side, it will not matter in the judge’s decision.

Although Convery granted the couple a divorce on Thursday, division of the assets will not be swift. The judge will probably not decide on the distributions of the couple’s assets until the fall — in the middle of Michael Strahan’s football season.

As for the trial, at times it seemed tougher than a goal-line stand. Hard-bitten divorce lawyers said they were stunned at the level of vitriol.

"It’s just naked aggression," Felder said. "This is New Jersey ‘Goetterdaemmerung."’

Michael Strahan’s lawyer, Robert Penza, could hardly disagree. "It’s a nasty case," he said. "It’s a high-level, high-anxiety case."

For instance, the 34-year-old Michael Strahan in a radio interview during the trial said his wife of seven years was a "very, very disturbed person" who spent to excess but at the same time had more frugal tastes like Target, Kmart and Houlihan’s Restaurant.

For her part, Jean Strahan said earlier that her husband had engaged in an "alternative lifestyle" when he began living with a prominent local television health commentator. (She later said she did not mean to leave the impression her husband was gay, prompting Michael Strahan to go on a local radio show to reaffirm his heterosexuality.)

As for spending $27,000 on clothes for the twins, Jean Strahan testified that her daughters "like to be accessorized."

"Isabella doesn’t like to leave the house without a purse," said Jean Strahan, who will have custody of the girls.

Michael Strahan, a 13-year veteran of the NFL who signed a seven-year, $46 million contract with the Giants in 2002, holds the single-season sack record. And he has parlayed his celebrity into endorsements, even appearing in Campbell’s Chunky Soup commercials.

And now with the case nearly over, he will need to spend time repairing his image.

Michael Strahan’s frustration surfaced under the pressure this past week. During a break in the divorce case on Monday, which coincided with the couple’s seventh wedding anniversary, he said to photographers who were waiting for him to emerge from the men’s room, "Great thing about this is, when this is over, you guys are still trash."

After court on Thursday, Jean Strahan seemed relieved. "I feel 260 pounds lighter," she told reporters, though she said she had regrets. "I don’t think it had to go down this road at all," she said. "I think he wanted a different life. And he started it."

And with that, she was off to the Hamptons with her daughters.

In Montclair, the shock over the show provided by the once glamorous couple still had not worn off.

"No one’s as surprised as we are," said Dorothea Frank, 54, a novelist who lives across the street from the Strahan house and who often entertained the couple. "I never thought there was a piece of trouble anywhere. We were shocked. You just don’t know your neighbors when you think you know your neighbors."

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