Inside the Jay Cutler and Kristin Cavallari divorce case

Tribune Content Agency

Jewelry designer Kristin Cavallari said “irreconcilable differences” and “inappropriate marital conduct” led to the demise of her six-year marriage to former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, according to paperwork filed Friday in a Tennessee court.

Cavallari claims that Cutler is “guilty of such inappropriate marital conduct as renders further cohabitation unsafe and improper,” according to the filing. Cavallari did not detail the alleged inappropriate conduct in her filing or in her Sunday statement announcing the split. Her attorney, Rose Palermo, who has been described as Nashville’s “divorce attorney to the stars,” declined to comment.

Cutler, who was with the Bears from 2009-17, filed for divorce on April 21 in Williamson County, Tenn., where the couple has lived since August 2018, court records show. He is being represented by Helen Rogers, who also represented Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist in his 2019 divorce proceedings. Rogers did not return a Tribune request for comment.

Cutler listed the date of their split as April 21, but Cavallari said in her filing it was April 7, the day they returned to Nashville after spending weeks in the Bahamas, where they were vacationing as the coronavirus spread.

The couple, who wed in 2013 in Nashville and share three children, also disagree on who has been the primary parent. Cutler, who turns 37 on Wednesday, wants shared custody, while Cavallari, 33, is seeking to have primary custody with Cutler visitation. She is also asking for Cutler to pay child support and health insurance for the children and designate her the sole beneficiary of his life insurance policy.

The split comes just weeks after the Season 3 finale of “Very Cavallari,” which followed Cavallari as she opened an Uncommon James store for her jewelry and home goods in the West Loop. Cutler and Cavallari spent Valentine’s Day at the store answering questions from fans who paid $200 a pop. They shared dinner that night at Siena Tavern in River North.

The third season of “Very Cavallari” kicked off in January with the news that Cavallari had a falling out with her former best friend, Kelly Henderson, over Henderson’s reaction to tweets from TV viewers that pointed out that Henderson and Cutler seem close, maybe too close. Tabloids have been reporting this week that “sources” close to the couple say the split did not stem from Cutler cheating rumors, and that the couple just grew apart.

Cutler and Cavallari have given TV viewers a peek into their relationship over 29 hour-long episodes of “Very Cavallari” and a “Christmas” special that was shot in August. A fourth season has not been announced. The audience has never been large — recent episodes have drawn some 300,000 viewers — but a fourth season would probably follow Cavallari to Dallas if she decides to open a store there. This past season pivoted away from Uncommon James drama and focused more on Cavallari’s relationship with Cutler.

Though they come from different worlds — Cavallari enjoys covering Hollywood red carpets for the E! network, while Cutler prefers fiddling with his deer cam — he has seemed increasingly supportive of her career goals since “Very Cavallari” premiered in 2018.

This is not Cavallari and Cutler’s first break-up. They split shortly after getting engaged, only to reconcile and wed. “A few things needed to change, and I knew the only way Jay would see how serious I was, was if I ended the relationship,” Cavallari wrote in her 2016 book “Balancing in Heels: My Journey to Health, Happiness, and Making it all Work.”

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