I've been sort of following Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford's custody battle saga. I say "sort of" because hearing about any custody battle, after barely surviving my own, makes me want to crawl into a bomb shelter.

I don't know why Rutherford's judge granted her ex the right to take...

Recently, a 12-step friend told me he was grateful for his addiction because getting into recovery turned his life around. Instead of shouldering anger and resentments, he had learned to detach from negative feelings that had consumed him and could act in accordance with his values.

I nodded as I...

"Mom, can you take me to Dad's house to pick up my computer?" my 15-year-old son Luca asked after we'd opened the presents on Christmas.

It was a simple, reasonable request. In fairness, my ex-husband Prince should have dropped off the computer at my house, but he is...

I had lunch with my funny and irreverent friend "Miranda" the other day. She, like me, has divorced a Very Important Person and has a child with behavior issues, so over gazpacho and Ricotta terrines, we traded stories from our respective post-divorce trenches.

Here are some of the...

Recently, The Huffington Post ran an article that featured a mother's regret for leaving her children with their father post-divorce. She explained that the divorce left her feeling emotionally and psychologically fragile and she chose to live with relatives for a few years in order to regroup. She...

We hear so many horror stories that come from divorce: financial devastation, children's psychological demise, lives torn asunder. I don't intend to advocate divorce nor diminish any of the hardships that befall many people post-split.

I do want to suggest, however, that the black-and-white thinking that surrounds divorce obscures some...

Awhile back, in the middle of my god-awful custody battle, there was a moment when I thought I might have to pay my wealthy ex-husband child support.

I ended up giving him full custody of my son because I could no longer afford legal fees to continue the...

When we first moved into our neighborhood, I took my daughter Franny on a walk. It was a gloomy December afternoon. We passed the Latino market, graffiti-streaked walls on a decrepit '70s apartment building, a front yard littered with boxes, Ikea cast-offs, a rusted car collapsed on the...

A friend and I, both divorced for several years, met for lunch a few days ago. Over our Chinese chicken salads, she told me she'd recently heard a story about a woman who "announced" her divorce to her husband by storming out of his birthday party with the dog and...

Not all divorces are ugly. Some exes mediate instead of hiring pit bull attorneys, sit comfortably together at their kids' school performances and maintain the same rules in each household.

Child support is paid on time. Neither parent speaks ill of the other in front of the children. Timeshares are...

Christie Brinkley's recent divorce settlement made me bow to the fickle gods of post-divorce justice. The court appointed an intermediary to "deal with email bullying, verbal and emotional abuse" that Brinkley reportedly had suffered from her ex Peter Cook.

The media has stooped to...

When I fell in love with my ex-husband, I also fell in love with his family.

Their life was a non-stop series of trips and parties and events. They traveled to far-flung exotic locales as a pack and with an entourage. They operated as a team, cheering on each person's...

On more than occasion I have gazed into my second husband's eyes, sighed wistfully, and murmured: "I wish you were my ex-husband."

He smiles when I say this. Because he knows I don't really want to divorce him.

My husband Atticus is a stand-up guy. Despite the fact that he...

On more than occasion I have gazed into my second husband's eyes, sighed wistfully, and murmured: "I wish you were my ex-husband."

He smiles when I say this. Because he knows I don't really want to divorce him.

My husband Atticus is a stand-up guy. Despite the fact that he...

Divorce sucks for all involved. This is why some believe that staying in a miserable marriage is better than ending a miserable marriage.

To that, I say: Really? Children won't be affected by two parents who fantasize about the other contracting a swift terminal illness? Children growing up in a...

If you don't know that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator and former California governor, fathered a child with the live-in maid who had been cleaning the mansion he shared with Maria Shriver and their four young children, prompting Maria to hire a kick-ass divorce attorney, you have been living under a rock.

Last May, the $3000 in child support I had received every month for the past eight years stopped. My ex-husband, who is independently wealthy and works sporadically, legally modified support so he no longer pays a dime. After years of worrying that this day might come ("How will I manage...

When my ex-husband and I decided to divorce, my close relationship with my son exploded almost overnight. "Luca," then six, turned into a piece of property my ex was determined to acquire. My ex did not go after our daughter, and to this day she fortunately has managed to dodge...