Mel Gibson was married to estranged wife Robyn for 29 years and the couple have seven children together. But will that marriage be declared null and void, now that Mel has a pregnant mistress-turned-fiancee? The “Braveheart” star reportedly wants to marry his not-so-secret girlfriend in a Christmas ceremony. Did the star pull some strings with the higher ups at his family-owned breakaway Catholic church –specifically his father–to arrange a secret annulment of that marriage? The National Enquirer is reporting that he did, in the hopes that the annulment would eventually be recognized by the Catholic church. Kind of strange, considering that this breakaway church NEVER gives annulments.
Mel Gibson’s 29-year-marriage has been secretly annulled, The Enquirer has learned exclusively.
And now he’s planning to marry his pregnant Russian girlfriend in a splashy Christmas wedding.
The annulment was approved by Gibson’s breakaway Catholic congregation, and it isn’t officially recognized by the Catholic church.
Despite that, the “Passion of the Christ” star, 53, is using it to set the stage for marrying his lover, 39-year-old Oksana Grogorieva, insiders say.
Catholic Bishops turned down Mel’s request for an annulment. So his dad Hutton, the 90-year-old patriarch of the family owned church, led a tribunal that annulled the marriage, a family insider divulged.
The tribunal was attended by loyal congregation members of Gibson’s private, independent church, the Holy Family Chapel in Malibu, about a month after Robyn filed for divorce, according to the insider.
Hutton Gibson presided over the hearing and granted his son’s annulment request after the Oscar-winning actor presented “evidence” that the union was never a true marriage, even though he married Robyn in a Catholic ceremony in Australia in 1980, said the source.
“Especially important was Mel’s description of how he felt pressured into the marriage in the first place because Robyn was pregnant,” maintained the family insider. “Those feelings indicated to Hutton that it couldn’t be a true marriage, and so he felt it must be invalid.
“After the discussion ended, Hutton pounded his fist on the table and said, ‘It is clear that this union did not have what it takes to be a true marriage!'”
“The annulment is being kept secret, but Mel hopes that some of the Bishops he has recently befriended can be persuaded to give him an official Catholic annulment.”
[From The National Enquirer print version, Aug. 10, 2009]
It must be nice to have friends in high places- specifically, your religious zealot of a daddy. I find it very hard to believe that a real Catholic Bishop would grant an annulment of a 29-year marriage, regardless of how it started. But then again, several high-profile Catholics have managed to win annulments of decades-long marriages. The Kennedy family has spawned a few, including the most famous one in which Joe Kennedy won his bid for annulment against ex-wife Sheila Raunch Kennedy, who wrote about it bitterly in “Shattered Faith.” Though it’s never been confirmed, Ted Kennedy is also believed to have been granted one in his marriage to Joan Kennedy – he’s since been seen taking communion, which is a big no-no for divorced Catholics unless they’ve had an annulment. Mel does seem to have a way of getting what he wants – if he does end up marrying his mistress in a Catholic church, we will have our answer.
Disgusting.
How very King Henry VIII of him. New rules for a new religion that favor the founder.
weird. you can almost see the plastic pieces in her face in that last pic.
So he married his first wife in the same circumstances that he wants to marry his 2nd… by that logic, it will be equally “untrue” when he’s tired of it. Clever.
Seriously, 30 years and 7 children. Annulled in a “church” that doesn’t respect or allow annulments. I hope he’s embarrassed with himself. He should be.
Yuck Yuck Yuck
Maybe Mel should slip in that movie he made “THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST” I truly (GOD forgive me) can not stand this man, he and his father will have to stand in front of GOD and look at all the crap that they dished out.
I doubt his or his father name’s are in the BOOK OF LIFE.
What a sick hypocrite! If he was on fire I wouldn’t spit on him. I feel sorry for his kids. Screw YOU Mel!!
Well if he felt that way, perhaps he should have had the marriage annulled way back then, and not have spawned 100 other children after that. By annulling this marriage (which is not possible given that teh Catholic Church will not recognize it) it means that all of his children with Robyn are to be now known as bastards! What a bastard Mel is.
I hope the legal system holds up his Christmas wedding hopes.
I hope he gets his Christmas wedding. Now I’m not a fan of Gibson, but I’m desperately hoping that Osikanarammadingdong (wth her name is)turns out to be a HUGE gold-digging b*otch, and he gets stuck with her for life. Talk about just desserts for both of them.
P.S. Robyn, honey take him to the cleaners. He cheated (obviously)which generally invalidated any pre-nup, which many void after only 10 years anyway.
They could get an annulment since Mel loves to drink and one of the grounds of annulments is one partner or both were under the influence or addicted to a chemical substance o.
They got marrried on 1980 before all of the big paychecks started rolling in so
his wife will get about half of everything , so he migh have to sell his private island or give the half the value to Robyn because I doubt there is a prenup .
The Catholic Church will not consider his children “bastards”. When an annulment is granted it is because the marriage should not have happened – it was legal in the eyes of the church and state at the time of the union.
I’m calling BS on this story. Hutton Gibson doesn’t even live in California and has never been the patriarch of Mel’s church. The way Mel’s life has been going the last couple of years, it’s loony enough, but the whole thing just doesn’t ring true.
29 year and 7 children yet it was not what his bought and paid for church would consider an real marriage. I am sicken by a hypocrite who would buy his own church and pull off such a farce. If it was not a real marriage then his 7 kids are all BASTARDS
Ah, symmetry, so when he and the Oksmama split, he can claim the marriage was false, because she was pregnant when they married!
Perfect. This picture makes me happy in perpetuity!
And yes Robyn, take him for 51%.
Ah yes, what you can get with money if you have enough of it. A generous donation to the church will get you a quickie annulment..
I find it interesting that he expects others to live up to the rather arbitrary rules of the Church, but they don’t seem to actually apply to him. I guess that is why he started his own ‘church’… you know what they say, if you can’t beat ’em, find a way around ’em.
It’s fairly easy to get an annulment if you have a whole lot of money. The amount of money needed depends on the amount of net worth. Numerous BS letters to the Vatican about the validity of the reasons for an annulment are also needed.
Mel can skip the Vatican and money parts since he has his own religion.
The girlfriend looks like Octumom
The kids are not consider bastard if they get an annulment.
nasty.
hypocrite.
🙁
A alcoholics marries a bitch.
Terrific pair!
Rules don’t apply to wealthy people (they never have and they never will).
I hope Robyn cleans him out.
Sure turn you seven kids bastards and your first wife into an unmarried slut. If that is you loving your children they will not want to see you ever again. I hope Robyn took more than half of your net worth.
Henry VIII was much more ingenious about his own marriages. Dubious though they may seem, the grounds upon which the legal proceedings were based had real judicial merit.
The fact that the former Mrs. Gibson was pregnant at the time of the marriage has no bearing. After all, Anne Boleyn was six months along and in need of some serious draping to conceal her ever-expanding belly.
He’s heard of a shotgun wedding, right? There’s no such thing as a shotgun divorce. You can’t say, ‘I can’t marry her because she’s carrying my child’. The ‘Catholic’ response would be, ‘you HAVE to marry her because she’s carrying your child.’
Henry’s first wife (Katherine of Aragon) had been married for five months to his older brother Arthur. The original heir died when he was a teenager, and seeing what kind of shabby treatment she was getting from her former father-in-law, decided that he would marry her. This was seven years later, he at least waited for the corpse to cool. They actually had a great and loving marriage until the…unpleasantness.
You know, before he went bat-shit insane, Henry VIII was quite the class act.
Here’s where Mel’s non-argument falls apart. When Henry decided that he would rather have fertile, fecund Annie over the now physically ravaged Katherine, his argument was that there was Biblical proof that the marriage was unlawful. That is (according to Deuteronomy), if a man takes his brother’s wife as his own, he will be left childless (and yes, politically speaking, having a daughter was exactly the same as ‘childless’).
He even had to get a special dispensation from The Vatican to marry Katherine in the first place. Now that the old grey mare was menopausal, he argued that the fault lay with the church for granting the marriage in the first place.
For someone who is such a hard-core Catholic, Mel doesn’t seem to know very much about the Bible.
Oh ugh. It’s so disappointing when stars you looked up to turn out to be sooooo …. Blech.
She looks like a cross between Octomom and Cousin It.
What a fool. He’s marrying her? So he’s giving up half of his wealth to Robyn and then he’ll have to give half of what he’s got left when Octoface dumps him.
Brooke Shields had her marriage to Andre Aggasi annuled also…
Oh this story is so funny. I can’t believe some people here believe it. Here are just a few basic facts about Catholic annulments:
-Annulment tribunals get their authority from BISHOPS, not congregations or laymen like Hutton Gibson.
-The length of a marriage or the number of children should not influence the findings.
-The children of an annulled marriage are not illegitimate.
-The findings are keep private.
-The process is lengthy and doesn’t start until after the civil divorce.
-You don’t have to be Catholic to be granted a Catholic annulment.
All of this means that this story is bs.
For Mel Gibson to get an annulment that’s recognized by his church, he would need to apply to a bishop’s tribunal. His father’s opinion doesn’t cut it, not that Hutton Gibson would ever play the part.
And as others have pointed out, Mel Gibson doesn’t need to bribe anyone to get an annulment. He can offer two very solid impediments at the time of his marriage: his substance abuse and Robyn’s pregnancy.
It’s pretty ironic that Mel has put himself in the same predicament once again.
He has no respect for the institutions of his religion. Who is he kidding? Everything he is doing in the name of religion is all for power and show. He is coming off as a super sociopath.
Holy Family Chapel is off the wall in some of the stuff that goes on there…many of the women there openly spread a devotion to St Martha, called the Dominator Prayer. Google it! This is a Voo-Doo prayer, occult , satanic, which is used to “control your enemies”. It is quite popular, and many of the women who attend Holy Family Chapel say it every week on Tuesday. STRANGE stuff going on there! Hardly surprising that Hutton would think he has the authority to annull a marriage! SHEESH!
here here OrangeJulius! lol 🙂
Seriously I thought i was paranoid when i thought to myself is that Octomom he is going out with now? Glad I am not the only one who sees it.
Sigh..why are people so mad? (that’s mad as in crazy for all you North Americans). It doesn’t matter if the Catholic church says Mel Gibson’s marriage is annulled in their books. The man was f’ing married, and whatever fiction the Catholic faith comes up with is a joke. Mel was married as far as the law of the land was concerned…plain and simple. AND if you think God/the Higher Power/Gaia/whatever form you think it takes is going to think “Oh wait, that’s right, Robyn was pregnant…oh no worries Mel you are off the hook in my books” you need to see a shrink or be exorcised immediately!
The guy is a cheat and a liar who has well documented problems with substance abuse, racist and or sexist thinking and actions. What you put out you get back and to my way of thinking Mel baby is in a whole lot of trouble.
bs…if this is true…it is very weird…no one can just go and get another person’s marriage annuled..
Haha, Pats – that was my first thought. Henry the VIII circa 2009. What a total slob. I hope his wife and kids move on to heal, and that Mel one day comes to understand just how seriously he failed (in a number of ways).
Angela,
I am with you guys, she does look like Octomom, and that isn’t a ‘good thing’.
I’m no expert on addiction, but know that it’s not uncommon for addicts to “cure” one problem then substitute another. Perhaps drinking was Mel’s way of controling his demons and after the DUI he sobered up but went off the deep end with his extremist, cult-like religion. In past interviews he’s called Robyn his “rock” and credited her and his family with keeping him grounded. Enter Oksana, a professional mistress who’s an expert at manipulating men, add Mel’s sex addiction and God complex and there’s a recipe for disaster. I’m sure Robyn will be glad to be rid of him, but what about the children, especially ten-year-old Tommy?
@34. drm…
Thanks… you perfectly said exactly what I was thinking!
Just goes to show that some men won’t let their religion get in the way of their dick…
Even though he is a misogynistic, hypocritical, racist, bible thumping, fundie, jackass, I would have totally dated him… until I noticed his thinning hair, now that is just wrong!
This gold-digging trick is going to score a huge payday. Way to do that Ho stroll, Oksanamama.
THIS IS THE SAME THING FRANK SINATRA DID!
HOW TO GET ANNULLED FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: YOU PAY OFF HIS HOLINESS, THE POPE WITH A FORTUNE IN MONEY. SIMPLE, NOT MESSY,
Sinatra’s wife had given birth and baptized her 3 children in the Catholic Church.
Gibson’s 7 children were also, baptized in the Catholic Church.
YOU PAY TO PLAY, in the Catholic Church…….
DON’T WORRY, THOUGH, THE CHILDREN ARE NOT BASTARD KIDS, WHY? YOU ASK?, BECAUSE FOR EXTRA MONEY THE POPE WILL LET GOD KNOW THAT THE KIDS ARE TO BE PASSED THROUGH THE PEARLY GATES AS CONCEIVED IN MARRIAGE, EVEN THOUGH THERE NEVER WAS A CONSUMMATION OR THE BIG WEDDING WITH WITNESS’S……….BARF
Mel, you miserable bastard …!
OMG! That is horrible! I hope it’s not true. I use to really like Mel Gibson. That new girlfriend is clearly a good digger and she’s ugly. I have heard nothing but bad things about her.
I hope he doesn’t go through with the wedding.He could do so much better.
There are some many things that I would like to say about this union. But the saying that stick out in my mind the most is What goes around comes around. First and foremost it is only fair to say that I am a devout Catholic and you must have your marriage annulled by a Bishop’s Tribunal. His Father cannot grant an annulment and Mel knows this. You just cannot to something to just because you dont’ like where you are in life. How is children must feel regardless of what they told their father, they know which side there bread is buttered on.
As for Mel’s pregnant girlfriend shame on him and her. She knew he was still married and so did he. And anyone who becomes pregnant in today’s society wants to be pregnant. Does this tell you anything Mel? Next who gives him the right to cheat on his devoted wife and his seven children. Yes you read that right. If he felt the marriage was over and his drinking and carousing were more important he should have started annullment procedures along time ago. Robyn would have been hurt but she would not have been humiliated.
Lastly our faith teaches us to try and save our marriages through counseling not matter the cirucumstances. Obviously Mel did not want to save his marriage. I was married 43 years before I lost my beloved husband to cancer. We had our ups and downs like most married couples but my vows stated until death do you part. Does that sound familiar Mel? One last comment, your future girlfriend/wife looks alot like your exwife. Does that tell you anything?
What a joke Mel Gibson is! He should be ashamed to look in the mirror!
LMFAO….she looks like a skinny version of the “Octomom”! He is a total nut with his phony religious fervor paired with his hypocritical behavior. Mel…you are an old, drunken, broke down JOKE! Good luck selling tickets to your movies.
In the Catholic Church….an anullment says that the sacrament did not take place…not that a legal marriage didn’t take place….there is a special inquest done y the Bishop’s Tribunal and it takes both sides of the story…anullments happen all the time with huge time periods between marriage and anullment….plus you still need a legal divorce. An anullment is a religious issue freeing you to marry in the church…Mel should know all of this and i think he’s acting very Henry the 8th…all respect i had for him after the Passion came out is long gone…
If you have enough money, you can certainly get your marriage annulled in the Catholic church. The sad part is that he is doing it to marry that skank so that his new child will be legitimate. Amuses me how concerned he is about all this but not about committing adultery. What a farce. I feel for his children and wife.
Here are the rules for Annulment in the Catholic Church: An Annulment MAY be granted to the parties seeking the annulment if: one or both had been married before in the Church. If they are relatives, such as parents, grandparents,children, first cousins or siblings, an annulment will be granted.( Any arrangement closer than second cousins.) If one or both had been under the influence of a person, circumstance or substance that would alter or affect their decision. If one of the parties kept secret, a serious fact that might influence their decison about the marriage. Impotence. Refusal to consummate. More recently, if one of the parties had an illness that may contribute seriously to the well-being of the other party. All applications for Annulments must be preceeded by a legal divorce.
Why is anyone surprised that old Mel is doing what he damn well pleases? This man has a decades long history of womanizing and addictions. I don’t hate him, I pray for him, but really! The chapel he is building has some VERY STRANGE prayers going on. Doesn’t anyone else see the incredible contradiction, that a traditionalist chapel actaully pushes and spreads a Voo-Doo devotion??!!! This is TRUE! I am not making this up. It is called the St Martha Dominator prayer, and it has been a popular devotion for many many months, mostly with the women there, but some men too. It is totally occult. Now why would a supposed good Catholic place be so involved with a voo-doo prayer? Something is rotten in Denmark, eh Hamlet???
It took Princess Caroline 10 years and 3 children later with her second husband to get an annulment. The Roman Catholic Church does not like to be manipulated, and some Bishops have taken issue with the number of annulments granted in the US while those in other countries cannot obtain one. Ted Kennedy and those who are divorced can receive Holy Communion as long as they are not remarried or in a sexual relationship with another person.
In January, 2007 Pope Benedict XVI has warned Vatican judges to get tough on couples who ask the Catholic Church to annul their marriages.
The Pope ordered the clampdown after new figures showed that the church’s appeals court allowed 69 annulments in 2005 for reasons which included husbands being too attached to their mothers.
The court, known as the Sacra Rota, considers petitions from couples claiming their marriages were never truly valid. Apart from the get-out clause for women married to “mummy’s boys”, an “inability to assume conjugal obligations”, usually due to a childhood trauma, appears among the successful reasons for annulment in 2005, as do alcoholism, use of cannabis, infidelity and a serious lack of “moderation in judgment” by a partner, meaning jealousy or a propensity to lie.
There is NO WAY the Catholic Church would give an annulment to a union that lasted that long and produced that many children!!!
And they would never marry a couple with a bun in the oven like that!!
I guess it just shows that $$$$ can buy you anything, including influence with The Church.
It disgusts me and makes me so sick, esp if The Church has indeed annulled this union.
But I just thought of something. Robyn is not a Catholic, so how did they get married in the Catholic Church to begin with?? So, why did they need an annullment??
Something’s not right with this story.
A Catholic can marry a non catholic as long as it is officiated by a catholic priest, if, that is they wish a catholic wedding. Robyn won’t have to worry about an annulment because she was never catholic. And “a bun in the oven” has nothing to do with it as long as both partners are coming to the sacrament of their own free will. But that can also be used as coercion too. Length of marriage and number of children don’t enter into it. But either way it looks like Mel has’nt learned anything in the past 29 years except how to embarass his family.
My ex-husband and I had no $$. My annulment was granted for the total cost of mailing the paperwork to Rome. Less than $20, and my priest(s) were VERY supportive and even facilitated the whole thing. So sick of heaqring that you have to have $$ for an annulment. Just find a priest that understands when enough is enough.
ps-Mel is no longer part of the Roman Catholic Church. His personal church is not recognized by the RCC, and therefore, he’d need no annulment to marry in it.
All this annullment crap is such BS! 27-year marriage not a “real marriage”? How can anybody go along with him on this – EMBARRASSING AS HELL BEHAVIOR, MEL, shame on you!!
“If he felt the marriage was over and his drinking and carousing were more important he should have started annullment procedures along time ago.”
Very good point. It’s not very convincing when he attempts to have this relationship cleared AFTER 24 yrs of screwing up. If he really didn’t believe he was married, he was commiting fornication with Robyn all those years and wasting her time since she believed she was married. Or did he just decide he wasn’t married when she kicked him out? Doesn’t add up. One has to wonder why the annulment is only an issue NOW. Why, also, did he keep the breakup with Robyn quiet, got this obvious gold-digger Oksomom(hardly a pious church lady to help him get to Heaven) knocked up,then let himself be busted in Costa Rica causing great scandal that was bound to happen! He sure doesn’t care what Catholicism looks like to the world through his example! NOW he suddenly wants to white wash it all? He doesn’t even hang his head in shame and apologize for the bad example to youth but is shown grinning about it on Leno. And his Daddy goes along with this? He might fool his family but he won’t fool God, or those with any sense.
Ted Kennedys annulment was overturned, he should,nt be taking communion anyway for being a proabortion politician
Is this next marriage also not a true marriage, because his plasticgirl is pregnant also?
The marriage with Octomom will annulled also, if a other woman is pregnant with his ninth baby!
It is a false allegation – there is no truth to it – the Enquirer made this up.
It is absolutely TRUE. It didn’t make a thing up. I KNOW. And no, I am not going to tell you how I know, but it is all true.
What does anyone expect from a “Catholic” place where they say voo-doo prayers as a side devotion. It makes me sad because they make Catholics look bad. They cast a dark shadow…
I don’t think the Enquirer made it up. It’s utterly insane but also the only thing that makes sense. It explains why Mel has been openly sporting Oksamom on his arm without any visible shame. He may well believe (or be trying to believe) that he’s single and only fornicating again, to hell with Robyn and his ex-family.
Wake up call, Mel, before you screw yourself and your loved ones over yet again.
A lay person has no power to annul anyone’s marriage, if this story is true, these people are living in fantasy land.
Disgusted, what is this about “voo doo” prayers?
I have been pretty upset with all the scandal Mel Gibson has been causing. And I have posted about it here and a few other places. I felt (and still do feel) that what he has done, and is doing, casts a bad light on the Catholic Church and also indirectly, Catholics as he is openly in sin, and (apparently) not showing any remorse about it.
Mel, I feel, has been targeted by dark forces because he stood up intransigently and made the movie, The Passion of the Christ. At the time, he was attacked in a most unfair manner, worldwide. Now this man has inexplicably shot his last support base through the heart… namely Traditional Catholics, but also good Christians of whatver sect, who are struggling to live the Gospel. It isn’t easy doing the right thing, we all know that.
Mel has let down in a serious way many who looked up to him. He may feel it is unfair to be set up as an example, and have everyone expect him to live a moral life. Yet that is exactly what a leader is especially called to do. And whether he likes it or not, Mel is a leader…. albeit not a good one right now.
So I am going to back off a bit, and call on the angels to go help Mel. And ask everyone to pray for him. He is in a dark place, and *surrounded by those who are not looking out for his best interests* whether of this world or the next.
@ CathyT. Mel is not a Roman Catholic, he no longer plays by those rules and this church isn’t recognized by the Vatican. They broke off with them. Mel IS just making up rules, this is a major departure, but if true, it’s not the only one. But no one is saying this is real, certainly not by Traditional Catholic process. He’s just crazy. Even if it’s not true, it’s believable. This bottom feeder Octomom is just a symptom of what’s left for him, obviously sane women won’t go near Mel, he’s too creepy. But I think you’re right about the children of an annulled marriage not being illegitimate. This whole thing just contradicts what he’s said about his wife and marriage in the past.
@ko. Hmmm. I can’t disagree with most of what you said, but I really think it isn’t necessary to say Mel is creepy. He isn’t. He is just one confused man who needs help. Maybe energy would be better directed towards praying for him and his family, rather than personal insults. I grant you his behaviour has not been good, but the Christian thing is to pray rather than heap nasty words on him.
I can understand where you are coming from as I have felt pretty confused and upset by his public actions. I certainly am not condoning or making excuses for him. If we care for his soul, then the best course of action is to pray he reaches out for help to the right people, and turns his life around.
I kept looking at her picture, mesmerized… I had seen her somewhere else. Then, reading the comments, it came to me. She looks exactly like Octomom. They could be sisters. I hope she is just as mentally stable as Octomom. Mel makes Catholicism a sad joke, getting an annullment after a 29 year marriage.
“Bastard” is a civil concept not a religious one. Catholic theology does not draw distinctions between “bastards” and children born in wedlock. All children have souls so no distinction can be drawn.
My non-Catholic husband got his first marriage annulled so he and I (I am Catholic) could have a marriage in and recognized by the Catholic church. It cost us nothing. It took less than a month, probably because his ex-wife’s first marriage (before she married my husband) was in a Catholic church and she did not have that marriage annulled before she married my husband. Paperwork.
And no, we couldn’t apply for the annulment until their divorce was final.