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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Actress Seeks $14 Million From NHL Star Ex

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Former "Baywatch" actress and Playboy model Angelica Bridges sued her hockey star ex-husband for millions, claiming he beat her while having "flagrant, sexually charged non-monogamous" affairs with other women.

Angelica Bridges sued Anaheim Ducks defenseman Sheldon Souray in Superior Court, alleging breach of implied contract, fraud and deceit and bad-faith denial of their marital agreement. Bridges and Souray married in 2002 and divorced in 2007.

In her 56-page complaint, Bridges says that when she and Souray married, she "had a highly successful and financially lucrative career as an actress, entertainer and model, while defendant Souray was an up-and-coming professional hockey player in the NHL." Upon marrying, she say, Souray demanded that she give up her career to become a "good wife" and "good mother."

"At this time, plaintiff was actually earning more than defendant Souray. In exchange for plaintiff foregoing her accelerating entertainment career and instead taking on the role of defendant Souray's homemaker, partner and confidant, defendant Souray promised he would make sure she and any issue of their relationship would be financially well taken care of for the rest of her (their) life, and would live in the upper class status which Souray's multi-million dollar anticipated and realized yearly income allowed," Bridges says. (Parentheses in complaint.)

It continues: "After abandoning her successful and financially lucrative career to satisfy and indulge defendant Souray's demands, needs and interests, plaintiff at Souray's express request and demand focused her attention and energies solely on constantly supporting defendant Souray in his career, running their household and raising their child of the marriage, Valentina. During this time, defendant Souray's career excelled and he rose up the ranks of NHL players, supported by the love, support and guidance of plaintiff."

Bridges says she came to regret that decision, as Souray's behavior became unpredictable and violent.

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"Despite plaintiff's acquiescence to defendant Souray's demand that she give up her career, and despite the unconditional love and unwavering emotional support she freely and continuously gave to defendant Souray, and despite the birth of their child Valentina, the marriage crumbled," the complaint states. "Defendant Souray engaged in mentally and physically abusive behavior toward plaintiff, threatened plaintiff physically, violently battered and assaulted plaintiff, and committed acts of criminal misconduct for financial gain to the community and thereby subjected plaintiff to grave legal and personal liabilities, including potentially ending any prospect plaintiff might have had of resurrecting her abandoned entertainment career. At the same time Souray subjected plaintiff to his wild mood swings, often becoming totally uncommunicative for long periods of time, leaving their residence without telling plaintiff where he was going, when he was returning or even why he was suddenly leaving. Most destructively to the marital bond, Souray from the inception of the marriage and throughout the marriage accepted the cheap, meretricious 'affections' of various and numerous female admirers, and humiliated and degraded plaintiff by repeatedly engaging in serial and flagrant acts of marital inconstancy, highlighted by Souray's proclivity to engage in profligate and dangerous sexual infidelities. After a few years, despite plaintiff's best efforts to change Souray's behavior and persuade him to revert to the enormous charm and caring he purported to feel for plaintiff during his ardent courtship of her, Souray's violent misbehavior in their home and outside their home on occasions they appeared together weakened the marital bonds. Plaintiff became physically afraid of Souray, as well as highly fearful of his unpredictable and erratic emotional tirades. This fear was driven particularly by Souray's sudden and unpredictable physical abuse of plaintiff. The crowning blow to the marriage was Souray's emotionally upsetting and selfish absorption in his never-ending pattern of lying to plaintiff about where he was going and what he was doing, as a cover to permit him to conduct serial sexual infidelities and sexual affairs with women he selected from a large population who revered him. The indignity of having a husband openly and flagrantly allowing himself to be courted by other women, accept expensive gifts from other women bent on destroying his marriage, and the fear plaintiff felt due to Souray being prone to attack her physically when she brought up his repeated sexual infidelities with other women wore on plaintiff, leaving her in a constant state of fear, anxiety and emotional turmoil, resulting in her being afflicted with an uncommonly deep and penetrating sadness. Finally, after confirming defendant Souray's continuous sexual infidelities and despite his repeated promises to stop and be a true and exclusively monogamous marital partner, plaintiff reached the breaking point and finally filed for divorce in August 2005. Prior to doing so, plaintiff had warned Souray that if he did not conform his marital conduct to his marital vows, she would divorce him. Souray ignored plaintiff's warning and continued to conduct flagrant, sexually charged, non-monogamous relationships with females other than his then-wife, plaintiff herein."

Bridges claims that after she filed for divorce, Souray physically and emotionally abused her. After a court awarded her temporary spousal and child support of $39,000 a month, Bridges says, Souray "engaged in a wily and concerted campaign of false promises, manipulative blandishments, repeated agreements to change his offensive conduct and generally conducted an intense campaign to win back the love and affection of plaintiff."

Souray felt he had the right to impose conditions of reconciliation on her, Bridges says in the complaint. She claims he ordered her to fire her divorce attorneys - Lon B. Issacson & Associates of Los Angeles - and hire unnamed, "vastly less effective family law counsel" which Souray had to approve.

As their divorce proceedings progressed, Bridges says, Souray promised to take care of her and "presented himself as a changed man."

"Souray was as arduous during his reconciliation effort as he ever was during his initial courtship of Angelica. During the reconciliation process at Souray's insistence plaintiff and Souray would attend hockey events together in seeming harmony. Even though their dissolution was ongoing in the superior court, during the elaborate reconciliation process which Souray constructed Souray demanded that plaintiff present herself at his side in a charade so as to appear in public and at hockey functions as husband and wife. He lavished personal time on Angelica, became a doting companion and initiated and intensified an ever-escalating intimate sexual relationship with Angelica, all designed to woo and win her favor again. Plaintiff continued to forgo her entertainment career at the insistence of defendant Souray and his wishes that plaintiff be available to him at his every call, every whim and every need, however slight. With plaintiff's continued support, defendant Souray's hockey career flourished," Bridges says in the complaint.

Bridges says she became pregnant with their second child and Souray urged her to buy a bigger home and promised to pay for it.

"Finally, Souray's campaign was successful. Plaintiff moved in with defendant. Now plaintiff believed that the reconciliation was complete and did not then give a second thought to the dissolution proceedings which she had initiated and which she did not really understand were moving forward toward their conclusion, the dissolution of their now-reestablished marriage," she says in the complaint.

But Souray remembered and understood, Bridges claims.

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"Despite the reconciliation, defendant Souray did not ask plaintiff to dismiss the marriage dissolution matter. Indeed, in February 2007, much to plaintiff's surprise, confusion and amazement, defendant Souray demanded that she sign a marital settlement agreement and finalize the divorce. Defendant Souray told plaintiff that their relationship could not continue unless she signed the agreement, and rationalized his demands to plaintiff with the excuse that they needed to start off on a clean slate, without the taint of their prior 'troubled' marriage, then technically in dissolution proceedings despite their complete reconciliation and plaintiff's pregnancy with their second child. Besides his own pressure he exerted to have plaintiff sign the agreement, defendant Souray had his sports agent and financial advisers verbally harass and call plaintiff every other day to sign the marital settlement agreement suddenly thrust upon her. Defendant Souray's attorneys started pressuring plaintiff's attorneys. Angelica was then in the final stages of her pregnancy with her second child, Scarlett, was physically uncomfortable from the advanced pregnancy, was effectively without independent counsel, was emotionally confused by Souray's sudden aggressiveness and frantic push to have her sign, and was overwhelmed," Bridges states in her complaint.

When she asked for more time to consider the agreement, she says, Souray became angry-and then promised her the world>

"To seal his demand that she sign the wildly unfair and unprotective marital settlement agreement, Souray assured Angelica that as soon as the unpleasant business of the termination of their first 'flawed' marriage was resolved, he would march Angelica to Tiffany and buy her a big diamond ring to usher in their new, secure marital relationship, which he said was the substance of the well-crafted reconciliation he had authored," according to the complaint. "To compel Angelica to forego getting independent professional legal advice and counsel and sign the one-sided marital settlement agreement, Souray ardently and repeatedly promised to remarry plaintiff immediately after their old, flawed marriage was terminated, and continuously and repeatedly reassured Angelica that he would take care of plaintiff and their children financially for the rest of their lives if she signed the marital settlement agreement. In her weakened state, confused by Souray's constantly changing moods, emotionally dependent upon him in the last stages of her pregnancy, completely financially dependent on defendant Souray and feeling cornered that she had no other option other than to sign the agreement, plaintiff succumbed to the intense pressure inflicted upon her by defendant Souray and his attorneys and minions. On March 1, 2007 plaintiff signed the marital settlement agreement."

Even after she signed the agreement, she and Souray continued to live together and introduced themselves to others as husband and wife, Bridges says in the complaint. She claims Souray gave her large amounts of cash, paid for a pool in their new backyard and told her to call her OB-GYN - he wanted his sperm "'spun' so he could get his boy," according to the complaint.

Months after signing the dissolution agreement - and without the promised remarriage - Souray signed a 5-year, $27 million contract with the Edmonton Oilers. Bridges says that if she'd known about his impending pay increase, she never would have signed the agreement.

"This increase in pay was due to community efforts, as plaintiff was married to defendant Souray for 60 percent of his professional hockey career, including the years immediately before defendant's lucrative new contract in which his salary increase was earned. Without plaintiff's love, guidance, support and plaintiff being the anchor of his household, defendant Souray would not have earned the pay increase. Plaintiff sacrificed her own career for the betterment of defendant Souray's career and expected to be financially protected by doing so. Instead, at every turn she was betrayed and cheated by Souray," Bridges says in the complaint.

A year after Souray signed with the Oilers, Bridges says, she discovered that he had been unfaithful to her again. She ended their relationship and filed a Marvin v. Marvin action to rescind the marital settlement agreement.

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But by 2010 - after Souray's overtures and after he dumped his then-girlfriend - Bridges says she convinced herself again that Souray "was a changed man." She agreed to drop the Marvin action, fired her attorneys again - owing them a six-figure fee - in exchange for child and spousal support modifications and freedom to pursue her entertainment career again.

Then Souray flew to Florida to be with his supposedly ex-girlfriend, Bridges says.

"Defendant Souray told his ex-girlfriend that he had been courting plaintiff the entire time in order to trick her into signing the release, stipulation and order," the complaint states. "Defendant Souray then started seeing the girlfriend he had broken up with while he was attempting to get in plaintiff's good graces so she would drop her Marvin action lawsuit and sign a new child support stipulation. Furthermore, defendant Souray became less engaged with his children, spending less time with them and visiting them irregularly, infrequently and inattentively. When defendant Souray did have his children at his home, they were often subjected to improper adult situations. In August 2011 plaintiff became aware that her oldest daughter Valentina had been exposed to watching defendant Souray and his girlfriend blatantly and openly having sex in front of her, as well as exposing her to a sexual home video they had made. In addition, defendant Souray had taken a belt to plaintiff's oldest child's buttocks, leaving bruises and welts all over her buttocks. Plaintiff notified the police and child services and filed a police report. Plaintiff further filed a temporary restraining order against defendant Souray, prohibiting him from contacting either of the couple's minor children, which was granted in September of 2011."

Since then, Bridges says, Valentina has been hospitalized three times at UCLA's psychiatric unit for children for emotional breakdowns, takes medication daily to control her behavior and attends a school for children with emotional and behavioral problems. Valentina is not yet 10 years old.

Souray also refused to abide by his agreement to pay a portion of Bridges' legal fees with Lon B. Issacson & Associates, resulting in a $320,000 lien against Bridges, according to the complaint.

Yet despite the turmoil, she managed to land a cooking show in the U.K. and - since her agreement with Souray allowed her to move freely with the children to pursue work - she found a school for Valentina and informed Souray she planned to spend the 2012-2013 school year in London.

"Defendant Souray called plaintiff in London while she was there to do a pilot for a cooking show. Plaintiff had company over at the time defendant Souray called. Plaintiff put the telephone on speakerphone so that her guests could hear the abuse plaintiff has to put up with from defendant Souray. During this telephone call defendant Souray plainly told plaintiff she was a loser, that everyone hated her, that he was going to destroy her, that her own children hated her and that defendant Souray's girlfriend was a 'better' mother to the girls. Plaintiff just sat there and at times would repeat the things defendant Souray said as if to give him a chance to take them back, to clarify she was really hearing what plaintiff and her guests were all witnessing and to give him a chance to calm down and think about what he was saying to her and in front of the children in that moment. This only infuriated defendant Souray to the point he began threatening plaintiff with 'You had better watch your back,' because she could 'disappear,' she was 'finished,' 'through' and that he was 'taking the f------ kids for good.' Defendant Souray began to tell plaintiff of her every move, where she had gone and her daily routine as if he had been stalking her or had someone following her. Defendant Souray's irrational and psychotic rant went on for at least 15 minutes and he would have continued if plaintiff did not tell him 'Never contact me by phone directly again, especially when the children are right in the room with you' and that his 'violence' and 'constant harassing' of her and the children had to stop. She finally hung up and was distraught and shell shocked. Because the violent outburst by defendant Souray had so shaken plaintiff, her guests did not leave her side until she safely boarded her airplane back to the United States," Bridges says in the complaint.

She claims Souray blocked her plans to move to London by getting an order prohibiting her from leaving the country with their children. She claims she tried to arrange a visitation schedule from the U.K. that worked around his hockey schedule, when he's on the road nine months of the year, and can see the children only occasionally.

Bridges claims Souray's latest efforts include seeking more custody so he can pay less child support which she has "become financially dependant on." Souray even enlisted his family to help in the plan, according to the complaint.

"In addition to defendant Souray working feverishly to separate plaintiff from her children, between June of 2012 and November 2012, defendant Souray's mother has sent plaintiff's eldest daughter electronic messages to her iPad berating plaintiff and stating how plaintiff is a bad mother and that someday soon defendant Souray will have full custody of both children. This vile communication from the paternal grandmother demonstrates that the entire Souray family is united in a concerted effort to remove the children from plaintiff, thereby destroying plaintiff by leaving her unemployed, destitute and childless," Bridges says in her complaint.

Bridges seeks at least $14 million in damages on her contract claims and a declaration that the agreement they made in exchange for dropping the Marvin action is binding. She also seeks "a reasonable sum per month for supplemental support and maintenance of plaintiff and their children in light of Souray's continued, intentional frustration of plaintiff's right to reestablish her career and in light of the continued damage which Souray has intentionally done to the emotional lives of their daughters Valentina and Scarlett."

She is represented by Stephen M. Rinka of Los Angeles.

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