Talk show legend Larry King’s estranged wife Shawn Southwick is refusing to settle for a USD$20,000 lump sum, plus USD$33,000 a month in spousal support.
The monthly payment, revealed in new court documents obtained by DailyMail.com will last at least until the couple’s next Los Angeles Superior Court hearing, scheduled for April 29 next year.
While $33,000 per month may seem like a large sum, according to Shawn, it only covers about a third of her monthly expenses, which she has listed in court papers as just under $90,000.
That includes $25,000 per month for rent on her luxury home, $12,000 on clothes, $3,500 on groceries, $4,500 for ‘hair, nails, pet care and gym’, plus $6,300 a month for her vacation home in Provo, Utah.
The former couple made a $4 million profit last January when their one-time home in Beverly Hills sold for $15.5 million.
According to Shawn, even though it’s been 10 years since ‘Larry King Live’ went off the air, the 87-year-old – who hosted the CNN show for more than a quarter century is still raking in more than $20 million a year from TV projects and commercials.
In addition to spousal support, Shawn, 61 – who says she gave up a well-paid career in modeling and TV to be King’s wife for 22 years and raise their two sons is also demanding that her soon-to-be-ex husband pay her legal bills.
King filed for divorce from Shawn citing irreconcilable differences in August 2019, five months after suffering a stroke, which in turn followed heart surgery four months earlier
Reportedly angry that Shawn was trying to get his will changed, King didn’t tell her he was divorcing her and she was ‘totally surprised’ when she learned from reporters that her husband wanted out of their marriage
It’s Larry’s eighth divorce. His ex-wives include Freda Miller, Annette Kaye, Alene Akins (who he married twice), Mickey Sutphin, Sharon Lepore and Julie Alexander.
He filed to divorce Shawn once before in 2010 after the National Enquirer reported that she’d had an affair with one of their sons’ baseball coaches, Hector Penate.
Larry and Shawn eventually reconciled but were hit with cheating rumors again in 2016. In August that year the couple put on a united front denying the stories of infidelity.
But tension in their relationship started again three years later and it reached a breaking point when the TV star underwent heart surgery in April last year.
Shawn is said to have presented ailing Larry with legal documents that would give her rights over their property and negatively impact their two adult sons, Cannon, 21, and Chance, 22.
When King made an ‘incredible recovery’ and returned home to their six-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion, he was said to be furious at his wife and was huddling with his divorce lawyers soon afterward.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV, Shawn revealed she was left ”hurt”, ”crushed” and “publicly humiliated” after her husband filed for divorce.
She also revealed how she was ‘blindsided’ with the news following a phone call from a reporter while at her second home in Utah.
Breaking down in tears she said: ”I was crushed, I had no idea that this was coming, it hurt yeah. I was totally blindsided.”
