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American Morning

Divorce Lawyer Discusses Jack, Jane Welch Split

Aired March 13, 2002 - 08:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: First, the story of Jack Welch's extramarital affair rocked the business world; now it has torpedoed his marriage, apparently. Jack and Jane Welch have been married since 1989. Now she is suing for divorce after the disclosure of an affair between Jack and a Harvard Business Review editor who was working on an article about the former GE's chairman business prowess. Welch's office said -- quote -- "My wife Jane and I are involved in a divorce, which we both expect to be amicable. All details regarding our marriage and divorce are personal to both of us, and I hope the media will respect our privacy."

There are estimates Welch's fortune could be worth about $1 billion, give or take. So how much of that will Jane Welch probably get?

Joining us now is renowned divorce lawyer Raoul Felder.

Thanks for being with us this morning.

RAOUL FELDER, DIVORCE LAWYER: Good morning.

COOPER: Let's talk about prenuptial agreements first. My understanding is that there was a prenuptial agreement between the Welchs, but that it expired. How common is that?

FELDER: Well, that's not unusual. We call it a self-destruct clause because people enter these agreements, they say OK, we're going to have a test period -- five years, 10 years, 15, but at some point I prove myself as a husband or wife. There should be an agreement. This one had a self-destruct clause in 10 years, and you know the unworthy thought crosses our mind that maybe Mrs. Welch waited for this clause to expire -- she was, after all, a lawyer, waited for it to expire and then she'd go ahead and he's not going to be protected by the agreement.

COOPER: Now, if Welch had petitioned for a divorce before the agreement had expired, he would have come off much better, right?

FELDER: Yes. Now, but everybody's forgetting one thing -- you know in the state of New York as in some other states, you've got to have grounds for divorce. Everybody's very good with saying this affair -- this affair, that affair -- but you know everything that's been published does not prove an affair. It proves he had a warm friendship (UNINTELLIGIBLE), or so forth. So if I were advising Mr. Welch, I would say don't -- you don't rush to a divorce so quickly, you know, because she can't get anything until there's a divorce.

COOPER: What -- how much money are we talking about? I mean there are estimates that, you know, we've said he's worth some $900 million in stock. According to "New York Daily News," he earned I think $71 million in his last year before retirement. They have some $20 million in property apparently. Is she going to get 50-50?

FELDER: Well, the question is 50-50 of what, because when she married him, he had -- he was an established person with some wealth? So what do you -- what's in the pot is that degree of wealth from the time they got married until now, but there's another problem -- there's something called celebrity status, which he has to some degree, very unusual for non-performers or non-athletes to have celebrity status -- he does though. He wrote a bestselling book, and I think if one is to conjure up the names of two or three big business elites in America that have it, you'd take him and maybe Donald Trump and maybe Warren Buffet, but very few ...

COOPER: And what does that translate in? How does the law differ when celebrities are involved?

FELDER: Well, it's smoke and mirrors. They set a value on it, until all these experts come into court, then set a value on the celebrity status. Now you can't give it away, barter it away, sell it, but it has a value under the law, and what hurts is it's not really money he has -- excuse me.

COOPER: You had talked about that Jack Welch was a business man ...

FELDER: Yes.

COOPER: ... successful, established before he got married. There was another case, another famous divorce of a GE executive, Gary Wendt, his wife divorced him, and she received more money than he originally offered her arguing that she was a corporate wife and had given up her career. Do you think that same argument will be applied in this?

FELDER: Well, yes. The theory now the courts seem to adhere to in current America is that there's a complete merger when you're a big executive or you're married to the president of General Motors, say. Your life is part of General Motors' life and so there's a complete bonding, interrelationship between. You can't separate it as you do on a, say, salaried employee.

COOPER: All right, Raoul Felder, thanks very much.

FELDER: Thank you.

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