Copyright Billboard
David Geffen’s estranged husband has dropped a scandalous lawsuit that leveled shocking abuse allegations against the music and film mogul while seeking lifelong financial support. Geffen will continue to fight it out in divorce court over temporary spousal support and potential asset division with Donovan Michaels, a former exotic dancer who married the 82-year-old billionaire without a prenup in 2023. But Michaels’ lawyers filed a court notice on Friday (Oct. 17) dropping a civil lawsuit that had sought far more: “financial support commensurate with his lifestyle for the rest of his life.” Michaels’ civil case, brought in July after Geffen initiated divorce proceedings, aired years of dirty laundry and leveled shocking allegations against the Asylum Records and Geffen Records founder. The 32-year-old (born David Armstrong) claimed that Geffen began paying him for sex after they met through the website SeekingArrangements.com in 2016. Michaels said Geffen treated him as a “sexual commodity” and plied him with drugs and alcohol as “tools of coercion” during their relationship and eventual marriage. At the heart of the lawsuit was Michaels’ claim that Geffen promised to provide him with “lifetime support.” Michaels said he relied on this assurance when he gave up a modeling career to be a full-time husband to Geffen. Geffen, meanwhile, fervently denied Michaels’ claims as “petty gossip and salacious lies.” The billionaire said Michaels was merely trying to extort a lucrative settlement out of him, and that he never promised any sort of lifelong financial support. Now that the civil lawsuit has been dropped, lawyers for the estranged couple will focus their attention on a more traditional marriage dissolution proceeding filed by Geffen in May. Geffen is asking in that case for a judge to declare that his only financial obligation to Michaels is $50,000 per month in spousal support for just one year. Geffen says the judge should note that he’s already given Michaels $5 million worth of art and jewelry, and notes that the couple lived “separate lives” during the mere 23 months they were married. Geffen claims that because he was retired and making no income during the marriage, there aren’t any marital assets to share with Michaels. “While respondent will have far less wealth than petitioner due to petitioner’s vast separate property estate when the parties’ married, respondent will certainly walk away from this brief marriage with more wealth than most Americans,” wrote Geffen’s attorney Parima Pandkhou in a Sept. 18 divorce filing. Michaels, however, says it remains an open question whether Geffen made money through investments during their marriage that should be considered joint assets. Michaels has slammed Geffen for trying to “conceal the truth about his enormous wealth” and says the divorce cannot be finalized until he gets a chance to look at Geffen’s books. “This is quite literally a case of David and Goliath,” wrote Michael’s lawyer Samantha Spector on Oct. 2. “While David has repeatedly yet falsely attempted to portray himself as an aging ‘retiree,’ the reality is that he remains an enormously important power player in uber wealthy circles who, through a myriad of capitalist ventures, is one of the highest income earners on the planet.” Michaels’ and Geffen’s lawyers are set to appear in Los Angeles family court for a hearing on Nov. 14. Neither side returned a request for comment from Billboard on Tuesday (Oct. 21).
