Trashy Divorces

There's news from the Jon and Kate Plus 8 universe, with the forthcoming Collin Gosselin memoir In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood. Alicia takes the opportunity to revisit her original story about the Gosselin Trashy Divorce, from all the way back in 2019, and then catches us up with what's been happening with the parties in the seven years since. Sponsors Find the fall...

Rounding out our Celebration of Dumpster Dives week, Alicia updates us on 49ers owner Jed York and explains the untimely death of Gypsy Rose Blanchard's partner Ken Urker. Then Stacie goes into tinfoil hat land with the alleged breakup of Elon Musk and Shivon Zilis, and we close with the Petty Crockerest corruption scandal imaginable (so far). If you want to go deep-deep on the Elon-Shivon story -...

Everybody's favorite monarchy has been very much in the news of late! The Windsors have had a minor book scandal, rumors of a scandalous book, Anglican priests catching strays about Advent Calendars, more Andrew muck, and much, much more. Sponsors Find the fall pieces you’ll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to Quince.com. Get free shipping on your o...

Today, we're taking a look at three musicians who've been in the news lately: Sean Combs, aka Diddy, the incarcerated music mogul who has apparently been spending big money to make his prison stay nice; 70s rocker Todd Rundgren, who shared some thoughts about Taylor Swift, video games, and the ruination of music; and another 70s rocker, Michael McDonald, who has recently been reunited with the son...

Up in Vancouver, Canada's most expensive divorce is under way. Billionaire Lululemon founder Chip Wilson and his wife since 2002, Shannon Wilson, are divvying up a fortune of something like $6 billion. Stacie takes us on a trip through some of Chip's greatest hits - and misses. Sponsors Find the fall pieces you’ll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to...

In a follow-up from the Barbara Baekeland story, Alicia dips into the story of Regine, the woman behind the discotheque, and potentially the first DJ too. So many international spiderwebs are included in this trashy tale of a lady who is nowhere near as well-known as she should be.  Sponsors Find the fall pieces you’ll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers...

Some stories shoot right past “trashy” and head straight for “disturbing,” and that is the case of murdered socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland. In this encore presentation from November 2022, Alicia recounts the troubling life and times of a family beset by mental illness and too much money, and the tragedy that unfolded as a result. Sponsors Upgrade your every day! Download the Quince app for app-e...

Over the last few years, country music fans have fallen in love with the music and persona of Jelly Roll, a former rapper who spent two decades trying to make his musical dreams come true. And as those dreams materialized, they did it in enormous fashion - while Jelly himself took the opportunity of that success to become smaller and smaller. As his circumstances and outlook have changed, apparent...

In today's Dumpster Dive, Alicia takes us on a journey through a land she is uniquely unqualified to speak on: sportsing! First up, an unsettling story about the NFL's Tyreek Hill and his long history of domestic violence. Then, basketballer Luka Doncic is having some trouble balancing fatherhood and a broken engagement in his native Slovenia. Next up, feast your ears on the soap opera that is the...

The world was captivated by the saga of Princess Diana when she married and divorced Prince Charles, but it turns out that marital trouble is a bit of a family matter for the Spencers. Alicia has the details on Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, whose three divorces and other romantic misadventures stand out even among the notoriously randy aristocracy. Sponsors Upgrade your every day! Download the...

In 2023, Belle Burden, a granddaughter of Babe Paley, published an essay in the New York Times Modern Love column called, "Was I Married to a Stranger?" It's a question a lot of people ask themselves after a divorce, so the column went very viral and a book deal followed. Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage published in January, and quickly became the must-read book of 2026. It's part processing and p...

We've all heard that money doesn't buy you happiness, and today we have a prime example. John Overdeck, co-founder of one of the world's largest hedge funds, Two Sigma Investments, is worth somewhere between $6B and $10B, but the guy can't get himself out of an increasingly enmeshed series of conflicts. First, there's the feud he has with Two Sigma's co-founder, where each holds about 50% of the c...

We do love Listener Letters around here, and Jay sent us a real gem recently. His Granny really hated Ava Gardner for reasons that stayed with her a lifetime. Send your trashy stories to us at trashydivorces.com. Sponsors Upgrade your every day! Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to ⁠Quince.com/TRASHY⁠. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Cana...

In this final episode of the Sunny and Claus von Bülow arc, we investigate the fallout from the verdict in the second trial, its aftermath, and provide Dunne the final words, on Sunny’s behalf. Sponsors Upgrade your every day! Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to ⁠Quince.com/TRASHY⁠. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and UK, too! Wan...

In the four days of jury deliberations in the 1985 trial of Claus von Bulow, Dominick Dunne is very deep into his reporting on this piece, even landing an invite to Clarendon Court from Sunny’s children. There is also a very revealing dinner as well with the press pool. Our man Nick wastes no time as everyone is awaiting the final verdict for Claus, and what it will mean for so many. Sponsors Upgr...

In this episode, we continue our investigation into Sunny and Claus von Bülow, dipping into all the information Dominick Dunne is gathering during the 1985 re-trial of Claus for twice attempting to murder Sunny. Our man Nick talks with everyone during the trial, and reports all the inside scoop from these summer weeks. Sponsors Upgrade your every day! Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offe...

In this episode, we continue our journey into Sunny and Claus von Bülow, and answer the question posed in the previous episode – who is the mysterious Mrs. Reynolds? It doesn’t take Claus von Bulow too long to move onto his appeal from his 1982 conviction and onto his next mistress, Andrea Reynolds as Dominick Dunne will reveal within Fatal Charm: The Social Web of Claus von Bülow. Sponsors Upgrad...

In this episode, we continue our journey into Sunny and Claus von Bülow. This week, Sunny is placed into her final and irreversible coma in December 1980, and her husband Claus will stand trial for his crimes in the spring of 1982. Sponsors Upgrade your every day! Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to ⁠Quince.com/TRASHY⁠. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. No...

This week we pull one from the Patreon Vault to explore Clarendon Court in Newport RI, the home and its colorful history with so many spiderwebs. From its construction to its century of legendary owners, there is much more to this home than the location of two attempted murders. Sponsors Upgrade your every day! Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to ⁠Quince.com/TRASHY⁠. Get fre...

In this episode, we continue our journey into Sunny and Claus von Bülow, taking them from their June 1966 marriage to Christmas 1980, as the second attempted murder of Sunny by Claus at Clarendon Court, their Newport RI home. The fourteen years covered here takes our couple from happiness to adultery and then suspicious of even darker themes, before it all comes crashing down. Sponsors Upgrade you...

We begin a deeper investigation into the scandal that rocked high society in the 1980s, the twice attempted murder of Sunny von Bulow and the subsequent trials of her second husband Claus von Bulow for those crimes. In this first episode, we introduce and get to know the main characters in this story, Martha “Sunny” Sharp Crawford and Claus von Bulow. What happens in their lives before and up to t...

In this bit of a bonus episode, we pulled out a few delightful tales from long ago Patreon episodes to celebrate Dolly Parton just a little while longer. Included are anecdotes from Kenny Rogers, long time collaborator that will melt your heart, and a story from Keanu Reeves too that no one saw coming. Sponsors Upgrade your every day! Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to ⁠Qui...

Today, we honor the queen of our hearts by revisiting a long -ago story from Season Five. Stacie revealed the details about the start of her career, when country superstar Porter Wagoner plucked her from obscurity to be his “Girl Singer.” Seven years later, her split from him drove him off the stage and into a courtroom, but Dolly would always love him anyway. As a follow up, we celebrate Saint Do...

Content Warning: While we avoid graphic descriptions of abuse, this story is inherently about the sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking of children and a crew of horrible people who allowed it to play out over decades. It is upsetting, disturbing, and enraging. Listener discretion is encouraged. Alan Dershowitz was a key player in one of the most appalling and long-running miscarriages...

Alan Dershowitz is in many ways the sort of person that Alicia would describe as a spider in the spiderwebs we indulge in. He's represented Patty Hearst, Mike Tyson, and OJ Simpson - all three TD alums - and has also managed across his career to push boundaries when it comes to legal ethics and attacks on opponents. Unfortunately, Alan's first wife learned what it's like to be against him in a cou...