Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Rudy Giuliani Vs. Donna Hanover Settled Out of Divorce Court
Aired July 11, 2002 - 09:47 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It had all the makings of a sensational divorce case. Rudy Giuliani vs. Donna Hanover was tailor-made for the tabloids. But yesterday, on the day the courtroom drama was to begin, the former New York mayor and his estranged wife settled their bitter dispute out of divorce court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MYR. RUDY GIULIANI, FMR. NEW YORK MAYOR: I'm relieved that we're able to reach an agreement on all these different terms, and spare everyone any further pain or embarrassment.
HELEN BREZINSKY, DONNA HANOVER'S ATTORNEY: Rudy has admitted that he was cruel and inhuman. The children will remain with Donna. He will be paying her more than $6.8 million.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Hanover and Giuliani had accused each other of "cruel and inhuman treatment." Joining us now from Los Angeles to talk about this divorce deal, Philip Boesch, whose celebrity clients include Anna Nicole Smith.
Thanks for waking up so early for us this morning. Welcome.
PHILIP BOESCH, ANNA NICOLE SMITH'S ATTORNEY: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: What is your assessment of this settlement?
BOESCH: Well, I think that the winners in the settlement where -- are not only the spouses involved, but really the children. They say a good settlement is one that's equally disliked by both parties, and so perhaps it took a while to get there, but making sure that these things don't go further in the public domain with accusations like this is probably the best for specifically the children.
ZAHN: Were you surprised how much their warring attorneys had to say after the settlement was reached, because we had the whole issue of infidelity brought up again. I thought the idea of settlement was to silence people.
BOESCH: When you have such public spotlight on people, as this case has brought on Mr. Giuliani and Mrs. Hanover, their public figure persona is so important and so visible that I think that you almost are expected to comment. No comment in the situation like that in front of 25 cameras is sometimes perceived by the public as a defeat. And so I don't know what motivated the comments, but it's very difficult to say nothing in response to something that's 27,000 microphones in front of you pretty much 24-7.
ZAHN: Something I think you had to deal with in the past.
BOESCH: Well, you know.
ZAHN: Carry on.
BOESCH: Well, you know, you'd like to think that your client's privacy is much more important than the need to answer questions, but when the public is so interested, and does have the right to know, the media doing its job inevitably extracts information, and the incentive for both these people is to make sure that their side of the story, what they think is true, gets out, so that the only real way to make sure that a true story is being told is to participate in its telling.
ZAHN: Help us better understand the settlement within the context of some of the charges that have been made a long the way, that the Rudy Giuliani was accused of having adulteress relationships, and the mayor in turn accused his estranged wife of cruel and inhuman treatment. Does the settlement kind of reinforce both of those claims?
BOESCH: Well, you know, New York is a unique place to get divorced. It's the only state left that really requires parties to allege things like abandonment, adultery, cruel and inhumane treatment in order to get a divorce. All the other states have gone to know- fault divorce, where it's sufficient to have irreconcilable differences, or fall out of love; you don't need to point the finger. Simply, in order to get a divorce, you have to prove one of those things occurred. So you get this strange situation where the press, naturally, and the public feeds off of the notion that there must be something going on here; they have to trade these nasty charges, when in reality, you can't get divorced unless you prove one of those things.
ZAHN: Finally, this morning.
Sorry, Philip.
BOESCH: I wouldn't read anything into the fact that the parties had to settle on cruel and inhuman treatment. That's actually -- it's milder to -- that's one of the catch-all phrases. Trying to figure out what's cruel and inhumane is an interesting debate. And what the courts decide cruel and inhumane is kind of withholding sexual relations. Is that cruel and inhumane? Well, yes, if it causes mental anguish for the person who doesn't have any sexual relations? No, it's not if the defense is she or he wasn't interested anyway. You get -- very strange things have to be proven in order to get a divorce in New York.
ZAHN: Philip Boesch, thanks for helping us better understand what might have transpired here, a lot of analysis of exactly what Donna will get every month from her former husband. It's keeping the tabloids all abuzz here.
Again, thanks for your perspective this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
