*A California appeals court has reinstated Terrence Howard’s divorce judgment involving his second wife after finding he was not coerced into signing it, Page Six reports.
The ruling could allow Michelle Ghent to claim some of Howard’s earnings from the hit Fox series “Empire.”
Ghent filed for divorce in February 2011 and also filed for a restraining order in December of that same year, accusing Howard of being physically abusive toward her. Their divorce was finalized in May 2013.
As Page Six reports, “the three-justice panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles ruled unanimously to reinstate the judgment that was tossed out by a lower court in 2015.”
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That ruling found that the actor was under duress when he agreed to pay Ghent spousal support because he feared she would leak embarrassing information about him.
They agreed to a divorce settlement that paid her monthly support of $5,800 and as much as $4 million a year, depending on his earnings.
Wednesday’s ruling also noted Howard’s repeated attempts to reconcile with Ghent as showing he was not coerced into the divorce agreement.
“Mutual bullying does not describe a relationship in which one party’s will is subsumed by the other’s, and does not warrant setting aside a judgment as a matter of law,” the ruling Wednesday said.
The ruling also calls for Howard to pay the costs of the appeal filed by his ex-wife.
After two failed marriages, Terrence insists he is now “settled” with his third wife, Mira Pak.
“Two weeks after meeting Mira, I gathered up things associated with my past and found a nice hill and buried them all there,” he told People.com in March. “Mira settled me. Our marriage is effortless. Relationships are hard work, but we really don’t fight.”
