Phil Collins’ ex-wife Orianne Cevey was found to have lied under oath by the judge who dismissed her $20 million lawsuit against the singer.
As Vidak For Congress reported last month, Cevey lost her battle to get half the proceeds from a Miami waterfront mansion that Collins sold for nearly $40 million in February 2021.
In the sensational full discharge order released Tuesday, Judge Alan Fine wrote that Cevey “has been purposely deceitful in the course of these proceedings — including but not limited to by falsely testifying under oath before this Court.”
Cevey, the mother of the sons of Genesis star Matthew, 17, and Nicholas, 21, claimed that Collins had previously promised her half of the sale if she moved back in with him after their divorce.
Judge Fine, in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County, Florida, added:[Her] The complaint is hereby rejected in its entirety for three independently decisive reasons.”
He said Cevey committed 10 separate violations of the court’s orders, adding that this “prevented the defendants from obtaining a vital, critical discovery that would prove or disprove her claims.”
Second, he stated that Cevey “has been purposely misleading in the course of these proceedings — including, but not limited to, by falsely testifying under oath before this Court.”
For example, Judge Fine wrote that Cevey told the court that certain financial documents from her Swiss bank accounts existed – but she refused to provide them: “The logical conclusion to be drawn is that the documents do not exist.
“Her motive for being unfair to the Court was to try to avoid sanctions and keep her case going without complying with the discovery. Her dishonesty is an affront to the interests of justice, and her pleas should be quashed as a result and biased dismissal introduced.”
Cevey, 48, and Collins, 71, were married from 1999 to 2007. She was then married to investment banker Charles Mejjati from 2008 to 2017, but reunited with Collins in 2015. They separated again in 2020 and she married Thomas Bates; they have since split.
Collins’ attorneys — led by noted Palm Beach divorce attorney Jeffrey Fisher, who now represents Sylvester Stallone in his divorce from Jennifer Flavin — said in documents that Cevey had alleged in a 2016 lawsuit that she was “mentally unable” to a divorce settlement with Mejjati, but changed her tune in 2020.
According to court documents, Cevey claimed she went through with that divorce voluntarily because Collins promised her half of their shared home in Miami if she divorced Mejjati.
Fine wrote, “That petition says nothing about her being ‘enticed’ into signing a settlement agreement with her then-husband, nor any promises by the LLC or anyone acting on behalf of the LLC (i.e. Phil Collins).”
Cevey was awarded $46 million after her 2008 divorce from Collins – a record in the UK at the time.
Judge Fine ended the order by writing that the court will reserve jurisdiction to establish claims for attorneys’ fees and costs.