Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas have completed the asset-splitting portion of their divorce, which just makes me a little sad. They finalized their divorce back in July and this is the final step. I thought they would make it, and Antonio always speaks glowingly of Melanie, even after their split. Part of me was hoping for a reconciliation, but it was not to be. Anyway Melanie can go stare at her Picasso painting while getting in house spa treatments because she’s getting a whopping $65,000 a month in spousal support. They have one daughter together, Stella, she’s 19, so it’s not like there are any minor children to provide for. They’re just insanely rich. Melanie and Antonio also split the money they both made since 2004. They were married in 1996 but they had a post-nup. Here’s TMZ’s report:
Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas are officially single, after dividing a huge chunk of movie change.
According to final divorce docs, obtained by TMZ, Antonio made a lot of dough on “The Mask of Zorro,” “Desperado,” and “Spy Kids.” He keeps all the cash from those flicks and she gets to keep what she made from her earlier work.
Melanie and Antonio split money from every movie either of them did between 2004 and 2014, including “Shrek 2,” “Puss in Boots,” “Machete Kills,” “Expendables 3” and others.
It appears they signed some sort of postnup in 2004 which changed the financial deal of their marriage … they married in 1996 but it seems they kept everything separate from the date of their marriage until 2004.
Antonio is not getting out clean … he’s paying her $65k a month in spousal support.
She gets the house in Aspen and they sold their L.A. mansion and split the profits.
And there’s a lot of rich people’s stuff that was divvied up. She gets a Picasso called “The Painter and His Model.” He gets a pencil drawing by Picasso and another pencil drawing by Diego Rivera.
Well I guess it’s done now. Antonio has had a girlfriend for about a year, she’s a 30-something Dutch investment consultant, and judging from Melanie’s Instagram they don’t have hard feelings. (That they’re making public at least.) Melanie even posted a throwback photo a few months ago of the two of them at the Shrek premiere. In case it looks like she’s pining for Antonio, she had the tattoo with his name on it lasered off and she posts other throwback photos, with Don Johnson and her various exes. So I think she’s doing fine. Plus Melanie and Antonio seem to be striving to be friendly for their daughter’s sake. They even attended Stella’s graduation together.
Oh and Melanie is selling the estate she got in the divorce, in Aspen, Colorado. TMZ has a video here and it looks incredible but the decor is not my style. My parents own a “log cabin” type house and their mission style furniture goes with the house and looks more polished than the rustic stuff in Griffin’s mansion, but that’s just my preference.
This is my favorite throwback photo from Melanie’s Instagram:
Also, how amazing does Melanie’s mom, Tippi Hedren, look? She’s 85!!
photo credit: WENN.com and Instagram/Melanie Griffith
I had no idea they were that insanely rich, yowza.
The Tattoo Curse! Never get the name of your significant other tattooed!
God, I remember in middle school I was all about Banderas and the Rock. It was over. They were totally my 7th grade husbands. Keep your 98 Degrees and what have you. I’ll take Zorro and the People’s Champ.
I got my husband’s name tattooed on my right shoulder in his handwriting. We’ve been together for 25 years, married for 24, so we decided we’re safe, LOL. (He has my name in my handwriting on the same shoulder.)
His name is Bill, so if anything happens, I’ll just get it changed to “Pay My Bills.” 🙂
Thought I was safe too and had our initials (not even a full name) put in a heart tattoo on my ankle. A year later (after 25 years of marriage) we were on the road to divorce!
Anastasia, LOL, love it!
I went with my sister to get her boyfriend’s name tattooed on her and when she was in the bathroom I begged the tattoo artist to make it something that could easily be covered up. The tattoo artist said “ohhhh- I always try to do that”. One year later it turned into a humming bird.
I’ll have what Tippi’s having.
I always thought Melanie was so fragile and needy in the relationship and felt Antonio was always trying to ‘keep the peace’ in the relationship. I never followed them closely but just the feeling I’d get over the years when one of them was promoting something.
Tippi was in an episode of CSI a number of years ago. She looked great and it was nice seeing her onscreen again. I admire her for her work protecting the big cats. Melanie’s best work was in Night Moves when she was a teen IMO.
Melanie was underrated as an actress for most of her career, save her one Best Actress nod for Working Girl (one of my favorite movies ). Another incredible movie is Jonathan Demmes Something Wild with Jeff Daniels. So good. I actually like it better than Working Girl. She really was/is an incredibly good instinctual actor. I think sometimes her personal dramas (drugs, drink, relationships) sometimes collided with her career aspirations.
On the superficial side: her previous cosmetic surgeon(s) should be up on charges (her era of big lips was especially tragic), but as of late I think she’s had some corrective work done and looks really nice. She should stop now though.
Would like to see her get back into acting. I love that Antonio continues to provide and of course i think her kids are well on their way to major success in the industry.
Trivia: i used to be so in love with Sonny Crockett/Don Johnson as a kid, i cried when Melanie guest starred on Miami Vice and she and Don fell in love again, and got married, then they had a baby (Dakota) together, and I was further devastated. Lol Crushes are so serious when you’re 11. Lol
I’m definitely not denigrating her later work, but she was 14 or 15 when she did Night Moves with Gene Hackman and she was GREAT in it. That’s the one that sticks in my mind when I think of her.
I loved Working Girl. She was a natural. The throwback pic of her and Don makes me sad. That was her original face! Goldie’s too. Hopefully she won’t find the need to get more work done.
I was surprised that these 2 got together in the first place. Wow! @ 65K per month! Does Antonio really have that kind of dough?
I’m guessing that maybe he has a really good business manager that invested well for him. His career peaked a long time ago and no way he’s demanding huge amounts of money for his acting. I also think that they are both pretty dumb (based on interviews I’ve seen), so that’s why I think maybe he has a great business manager. I don’t think he has the savvy to make good investment decisions.
I think Shrek was a big money maker for him, but also that you’re right and he had good investment help, because those movies were a while ago.
I generally don’t agree with spousal support unless one party gave up their career to help the other, and I don’t think that happened here. But it seems like they came to this agreement amicably, so whatever works for them I guess.
Does she not work that she needs spousal support? That just seems like a LOT of money (at least to me).
Yeah, that’s a lot. PER MONTH. Wow. I wondered the same thing, why does she need that much?
I like the group photo with Don Johnson. Even though it was 1990, that’s some 80s realness right there.
That was my thought too vis a vis the Don Johnson photo 🙂
Antonio works all the time. On big budget projects that make a lot of money (and some small budget films that make a lot of money) in Hollywood and in Spain. I can’t remember the last time she worked, and I can’t be bothered to google.
Yes! What a glorious time the late 80’s was!!!!!!
That is more than many people make in a year.
Just one of her monthly alimony payments would pay off my mortgage.
That’s more than I make in 2 yeas! ðŸ˜
Agree! It has to be a “maintain the lifestyle to which she is accustomed” thing. Maybe she should take it down a notch!
Oh she would look better w o the face lift. And the drug addiction ran its tolls. Also Dakota also has weird shaped lips, are those injected or implants. What’s up w the lips????
Nah, those are Dakota’s lips. I’m old enough to remember her Dad when he was younger, she actually looks quite a bit like him, and he had full lips when he was a very young man.
http://www.theplace2.ru/archive/don_johnson/img/DonJohnon_BoyandHisD.jpg
I don’t get the point of spousal support, child support – absolutely. But why should you have to pay someone you’re no longer in a relationship with, that person is not your responsibility anymore. He/she should get a job and support themselves like everyone else.
At her age the jobs have dried up. She received a lot of property, but it takes a lot to maintain your life. In rich people world, I see nothing wrong with the alimony. He’s worked regularly for years. It’s probably a drop in the bucket for him.
My parents were together 40 years. My mom worked until they had kids- a mutual decision, his career was going places, she had a fine job but with less upside. When we got older she tried to go back part time but when she did the family fell apart (dad’s kind of a dick). He left her the same year he retired. So she should go back to work and he should retire even though she spent 30 years raising his kids, managing his finances so he could retire, and basically managing the entire house/family?
I get when you are young and can work and just may have to downgrade your life, and yes some cases of spousal support piss me off too, but blanket statements….
I meant what I said in a no kids scenario
I can see it in your case, but I don’t believe Melanie gave up her career to stay home with the children.
I was in a common law couple for 23 years +. Met my ex when I was 17 and he was in university. I do have a job (I teach computer sciences) that pays well, but I must make in a year what he earns in a month. He insisted to give me alimony.
Said that he would not have the carrier he has without me: I supported his career choice against his family opposition, I allowed him – very graciously if I may say so, to travel around the world 300 days a year while I stayed and took care of the many little things of everyday life, from the houses to his parents.
He felt that we both had a right to the money he has.
I did not take the money because I needed it or because I was unable or unwilling to work, but because, somehow, it was an acknowledgement of US. He also gave me the latest Ipad, laser-engraved with some lyrics from the old song “Il était une fois nous deux”.
,
For most people I don’t get it either, but they are the super rich and there are different rules. Keep in mind they also agreed on a postnup in 2004 after 8 years of marriage, and I am sure the spousal amount or at least a percentage was agreed to then. Antonio obviously agreed to it, but I do wonder for how long the alimony goes for, usually there is a time limit which they never publicize. I know especially he made some good money, but they must have invested well too, because wow this settlement seems large.
Sure, his girlfriend is an investment banker. She follows him from country to country always on his arm. I don’t see a career in sight except to be his girlfriend.
Only $65K a month??? Poor thing!
😉
Oh, I think I could squeak by on that…maybe.
It’s what I make in a year!
I actually thought she would get more because they have been married so long. It is still less than a million dollars a year. I get that it is A LOT OF BENJAMINS, but still. An aside, I bet Andy Cohen is on the phone with her agent every other day trying to work out a deal to get her on Real Houzzwivvezz (in Kyle Richard’s voice) of Beverly Hills.
They also split their earnings from 2004 onwards. So in addition to the alimony and property, she got a pretty hefty settlement.
I wonder if he did something we don’t know about/didnt come out in the media..cheated etc?
She moved in the middle of nowhere to be with him. Translation for the hypersensitive of the forum: where it is very difficult for her to land any decent job. Good for her. She deserves every dime.
In L.A.?
Elle must think their Aspen digs were their basic residence, not a vacation home.
Spain
Makes me sad, I’m baffled by the amount 65k?? But who is going to hire an actress with addiction problems and with a .. face that cannot do much acting these days? I mean, I always got the feeling that Antonio was just so patient and probably so emotionally attached to her that he stayed with her because of her issues. I can imagine it must be so difficult when you don’t love your SO anymore but stay with them because you don’t know if they will function without you?!
People will say he was always a cheater and blabla but I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to be married to someone with so many issues.
Speculation, I know, but that was always the impression I had.
I don’t normally covet anything a celebrity has, but damn, I really want Melanie’s golden parachute…..sigh….
@Celebitchy ‘Oh and Melanie is selling the estate she got in the divorce, in Aspen, Colorado. TMZ has a video here and it looks incredible but the decor is not my style.’
I once saw a spread in Hello Magazine featuring Melanie and Antonio’s house in Aspen and I remember thinking ‘This is one of the ugliest expensive interiors I have ever seen’. I was actually impressed by the raw, ‘Flintstones-like’ ugliness of it.
I looked at the video, and I was also unimpressed. All that money, but no real taste. Horchow catalog.
Quite an achievement having so little taste, in fact!
(Maybe I shouldn’t be so mean, though. People can have bad taste and still have a good character:-))
She ruined her looks, it’s a shame.
Bad plastic surgery, smoking, drugs.
I always thought Kristen Stewart looks like a young Melanie.
I always thought Kristen Stewart looks like a young Jodie Foster. Whoever did the casting for panic room was spot on.
I see a young Helena Bonham Carter and also Alicia Silverstone
I always thought Melanie would fall apart if Antonio divorced her but she seems to be in a good place, and although she has messed with her face she has an amazing figure. Maybe Antonio delayed their split until he felt she was strong enough. They seem to be cool with each other.
Dating a 30 year old tho … such a cliche………..
Wonder how much he had to pay the woman he was married to when he and Melanie started dating? Or are we not supposed to remember that? I just looked up the first wife, Ana Leza. I’m glad to see she has remarried and is, as far as I can tell, happy. That whole situation irked me.
‘Or are we not supposed to remember that?’
Weird comment. They really don’t care what we nosey gossipers think. We are not their judge and jury. Sh#t happens
Oh, I don’t think they care; nor should they. That was not what I meant.
I would never have dreamt he had that kind of cash. He can probably afford her support, but how easy will it be when he gets another ex with child support. He must have wanted out of the marriage and felt bad so he is appeasing her with money.
Well, I sure wish I could be divorced from Antonio Banderas.
It’s not about whether or not someone deserves the money -it’s the Law.
And if we will start talking about fairness, she was way wealthier than him when they met.
Exactly! If you don’t like the idea of spousal support either don’t married or get an iron clad prenup. It’s so easy!
How will she ever live? I hope she will be okay!!!
*eyeroll*
I like Melanie but she always seemed so needy and insecure with Antonio. It’s obvious even in pictures–in almost every one I’ve ever seen of them together over the years, she’s hanging all over him or PDA-ing. Grow up.
He’s not hot at all! He can thank Madonna for his HW career (see Madonna’s Truth or Dare documentary, if that’s what it’s called). She went on and on about him (he was married to wifey #1) and he turned her down.
Also, he was never a heartthrob type in Spain. He was more a comedic character type actor. He posts nothing on Melanie and lots of his Dutch squeeze, but MG keeps posting pics of him and mentioning him in social media. But then she does Don Johnson ones too. Stella does not look half Spanish.
Pedro Almodovar put him on the map. Madonna had nothing to do with it. Did he really need to be in Evita? No.
Before Madonna and HW, he wa widely known only in the Spanish-speaking world. I remember when he first got noticed in HW. It was Madonna.
Good for them. There is such a thing as a “good divorce”.
That should keep her in pills & booze with enough left over for p.s.
Reportedly his net worth is $45 and hers is $20M. Neither is hurting for $$$ apparently.
$65k a month, meh..