Celebrity Lawyer Uncovers the Truth About Celebrity Divorce

Celebrity Lawyer Christopher C. Melcher, who is ranked as a best family law attorney in California, uncovers the truth about celebrity divorce.

In this episode of the Divorce etc., podcast hosts T.H. and Jessica sit down with Christopher C. Melcher, a top family law attorney in Los Angeles, California. He is a partner of Walzer Melcher Yoda LLP, which is ranked as a best family law firm in California. Chris dives into how celebrity divorces are often portrayed in the media versus the reality behind them. Chris also shares that, despite the fame, celebrities face the same emotional struggles as anyone else during divorce, though they must also protect their public image, leading many to resolve cases quickly and quietly to avoid mutual destruction. This contrasts with regular cases where emotions often escalate conflicts unnecessarily.

Chris explains that one of the biggest issues in divorce is hiring the wrong attorney — often driven by fear rather than strategy. Many clients mistakenly choose aggressive lawyers who fuel fights instead of focusing on resolution. He stresses the importance of finding a lawyer who is honest and direct, not a cheerleader or pit bull. The conversation also touches on custody battles, using Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s long, complicated case as an example. Chris also emphasizes that custody disputes need logical thinking rather than emotional reactions, and warns that dragging out battles over children can be both emotionally and financially devastating if not handled with careful strategy.

Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of the Divorce etc. Podcast hosted by us, the ex experts, where we give you all kinds of information and tips on everything divorce. Why? We’ve lived it, so we get it! We’re T.H. & Jessica.

Jessica: Welcome to today’s episode of the Divorce etc. Podcast. We are thrilled to have with us Christopher Melcher, a celebrity divorce attorney, and legal commentator out of LA, who handles some extremely high-profile divorce cases. It’s the kind of stuff that we are all reading about all the time. We love what we have read and heard about him so we wanted to have him on the show to actually talk about some stuff that we do love hearing about when it comes to celebrity divorces, but to really relate that back to what are the similarities and differences that those of us, us mortal people, are actually going through when it comes to divorce, and what we should believe or not believe when it comes to all of that stuff. So, Christopher, thank you so much for taking the time with us today.

Christopher: Well, thanks, Jessica, for having me. I appreciate what you’re doing with the show to really empower and educate people to go through what’s a very, very scary time in their life. I love all the resources that you assembled. And I’m hoping we’re going to provide some tips here that people are going to take away from in their non-celebrity cases.

Jessica: That’s right. That’s right.

T.H.: Yeah, I mean, when we go to whatever store and you see all the magazines with Reese Witherspoon getting a divorce, or Kim Kardashian’s finally revealing the secrets about Kanye, or whatever, I mean, that’s all bullshit, right? Let’s just put it out there right now. Everybody knows that even though you’re enticed, it’s not really real.

How We Relate to Celebrity Divorce

Christopher: Well, there’s probably a kernel of truth around all that stuff. I think in representing a lot of celebrities, what I’ve learned is that we’re all people. We all hurt the same as anybody else. We have the same problems that everybody else has. Now, of course, celebrities, have a completely different set of concerns. They also have a PR team around them that’s very skilled and so they’re going to message this and navigate through the divorce in a way that the rest of us don’t have to because no one is paying attention to our divorce. But in a celebrity case, they are, and they’re watching every move. Those people need to protect their brand because they need to come out of this thing through the other end with a career.

T.H.: Jessica and I talk about it a lot. I mean, we talk about how it’s difficult because your whole life and all the lies are put out there about you, you take it–I mean I would take it personally. And then, plus, you don’t want lies being put out there about you. It’s hard to keep it quiet. It’s hard to keep your life private, I guess. But you said something to us just before we started recording. You said you actually make more money on the lesser-known name high profile–

Jessica: Or no name.

T.H.: Yeah, divorces than a Kanye West type of divorce?

Why Celebrities Don’t Fight in Divorce

Christopher: Well, so that’s the other thing that I learned and we can all look at is that most celebrity divorce cases are resolved very quickly without a fight. Then I’ll see other people who are very wealthy that we’ve never heard about, or people without a whole lot of assets, spending everything that they have fighting. And so that got me thinking about, well, can we learn from these celebrity cases? The reason why the celebs generally don’t fight, especially if it’s celeb on celeb divorce, is mutual destruction.

They’re going to destroy their brands. They’re not going to be coming out of this on the other end very well so they have to–except for like a Brad/Angelina-type story, that’s very unusual. In most of these cases you see the conscious uncoupling, we’re leaving his friends, all this stuff that even it’s probably not true, but they just need to get through this thing.

We can learn from that because it is possible. It is possible to hate somebody, not trust them, and still make a deal with them. Most of my cases, in the celebrity divorce cases, are resolved pretty quickly without a lot of fighting, and that’s why I don’t make that much money on those cases. I’m very happy for those folks. The other ones that I’m confused about are like, why are we fighting? Because most of this stuff, I can tell people how it’s going to turn out.

Biggest Challenges in Divorce

Jessica: So what do you find to be the most challenging when it comes to divorce cases like that? I mean, we’ve spoken to a lot of divorce attorneys and it seems like nowadays, which is a nice thing to hear, that most divorce lawyers are looking for, if not amicable, that may not be the right word, but some kind of an amicable resolution.

They’re not looking to drag it out so that they can squeeze out every penny from their clients, despite what a lot of people think when it comes to lawyers, that they’re all just money-hungry. But when you have clients, regular people because again, I think our problems are to some degree on a different level than celebrities, who are fighting about stuff that you’re like, this is so fucking dumb, and this is going to cost you so much money, what do you think those biggest challenges are? And why can’t they hear you?

Christopher: The biggest challenge is that there’s a lot of messed-up divorce lawyers out there. I’d love to think that they were really good professionals out there, but they’re hard to find. What happens is that us as the consumer, the client, a lot of times pick a lawyer like you pick your dog. If somebody wants to match your personality, and you’re thinking like, wow, I’m scared, I need to fight, so I’m going to hire the most aggressive, nastiest lawyer. No, that’s the worst pick. You want somebody who’s going to tell you that you’re wrong, and tell you to keep the emotions at the door, to focus on the deal, get in, and get out.

Yes, you want to understand your rights and make sure you’re protected, but you don’t want a cheerleader and you don’t want the pit bull. Those people will destroy you. But we don’t know that because a lot of times we’ve never picked a lawyer before. We just think intuitively I want the most aggressive. Well, the most aggressive is the one who’s going to fight, put fuel on the fire, and basically run up the fees unnecessarily. A lot of times, those lawyers that are the pit bulls are doing so because they’re inadequate. That is the way that they get by is to bully people and be nasty. Eventually, the case just resolves itself because nobody can handle that. When it comes to actually go to court, they’re horrible lawyers. It’s just compensation for being a really bad lawyer. One client who had a really nice compliment for me was that I’m all bite no bark. And that’s the kind of lawyer you want, I think.

Hiring the Right Divorce Lawyer

T.H.: Wow, I just really need to stop for a minute because of how I wish I knew you back then. I did hire someone, and it was out of fear of the unknown of what was going on. My husband was cheating on me but also had a significant shift in financial positioning, which obviously was planned once everything was found out. I had a lot of research to do. But my lawyer did not tell me I was wrong. She let me go on and on like a therapist. I know now through all the multiple interviews we’ve done of all the mistakes that I made with her. I hope everybody really listens to what Christopher just said if you’re in the process and if you’re thinking about it. The attorney works for you. And Jessica and I actually just spoke with someone in business who called us out on our shit. We really appreciate that.

Jessica: Right. That’s the kind of person we want to work with.

T.H.: Otherwise, you just listen to your own self. I don’t need to pay somebody else to continue to listen to the stuff that’s in my head. I need someone to call me out so that you don’t make mistakes. It’s in your best interest to have a positive outcome. So really, that was really, really valuable information for everybody.

Custody Battles in Divorce

Jessica: I also think that when we read about celebrity divorces, let’s just say Brad and Angelina, for example, because, I mean, it’s been I don’t know how many years, probably at least more than five at this point that they’ve been fighting it out. It seems like in the reports I read, certain aspects of the divorce have been settled, but they can’t figure out custody issues. When you read things like that, if you’ve never been divorced, if you’re about to go through the process, I think that would scare someone like, oh my god, what if I get caught in a battle like this? I can’t afford it. Mentally, emotionally, literally, I can’t afford it. What do you think that people need to know what they should focus on and not be scared of or intimidated by just because they read it in the press?

Christopher: Yeah, it’s very scary to think that your right to see your child or children could be taken away or limited. It’s terrifying. But that’s what could happen in divorce court. What we’re seeing in cases like Brangelina is a very odd case. They did resolve the financial issues.

Those oftentimes are easier because we can kind of bracket that and say, hey, best case, you’re going to get X, and worst case, you’re going to get Y, and it’s going to cost you Z amount of dollars to get there. Most people can make that calculation and say this isn’t worth it, this is a good deal. But with kids, you can’t put a price on that.

There’s also some education that needs to go around it. And especially like in Brangelina, she’s saying, well, hey, something happened on this plane in 2015. And it’s like, okay, but then Brad went and did a lot of things that he’s saying, okay, I’ll be supervised with my visitation. Or my visitation will be very limited. I’ll go to these classes. I’ll comply with whatever you want me to comply with. And at some point, the attorney needs to go to Angelina saying, hey, unless you’ve got something else unless something else recent happened, you’ve got to let this go and move on. He’s the dad.

That’s what the judge was saying to her, Judge Ouderkirk, and then she eventually had him removed. Now we’re in some limbo state where maybe she’s going to continue fighting. One child’s already past the age of 18, where the court doesn’t have authority. Unfortunately, that’s maybe how this case gets resolved as the kids just age out. And so there’s definitely a lesson to be learned there that allegations of physical abuse, or verbal abuse, all that stuff needs to be taken very seriously, and we need to protect kids from it.

But we also have to look at the big picture. Here’s one of the challenges that I have for clients is they’ll say, I’m not going to agree to equal–Dad wants 50/50 custody time. I don’t want that. Okay, well, what plan do you want? Well, I think he should have every other weekend because he’s abusive. Well, if he’s abusive, why would you want him involved in the child’s life [at all] for the moment?

Why is it okay for two days a week but not three and a half days a week? So there are some logical things. Again, I’m not trying to be critical of my clients, but I’m really trying to understand this journey together and go through it. It’s like, okay, well, is that really the issue? Or is there some other issue that I don’t know about? Because I can’t serve you unless I understand really what’s the source of this problem? And so that’s the kind of critical thinking that we need to go through. But most lawyers say, oh yeah, abusive? Oh, yeah, sure, he should only have other every other weekend. Then you build up this big case of $50,000 worth of legal work and go in front of the judge, and the judge is like, well, that doesn’t make any sense. You think this guy’s abusive, but you’re going to give him two overnights a week without supervision?

Jessica: Yeah, it sounds crazy