America’s pettiest divorce: Twin Peaks director wins $105m from old money ex husband who spent fortune on DUCK DECOYS and owns private island… but now she’s issued bizarre new demand

For most people, being handed a property portfolio worth in excess of $100 million in a divorce would likely mark the end of any financial wrangling. 

But not for TV director Ernestine Rathborne, who is heading back to court in Massachusetts two years after divorcing her property magnate husband Philip DeNormandie.

This time the showdown is over a $3.1 million parking lot in a historic neighborhood in Boston, the Daily Mail can reveal.

It comes after the former couple agreed to a settlement that saw Rathborne, 75, handed $105 million worth of property, according to court papers filed last May.

Their split has already featured eye-watering payouts, claims of hidden fortunes and a lifestyle so lavish they had a staffer to brush their pets’ teeth. 

Rathborne claimed in court papers that her ex-husband had tried to fool her into thinking their fortune of $221 million was far less, but he was rumbled after financial investigators uncovered a $500,000 receipt for wooden duck decoys and he was probed further, exposing their true wealth. 

Now, in the latest court filing, Rathborne, who directed episodes of cult TV hit Twin Peaks, said that DeNormandie, 78, has failed to hand over the documents necessary to make the parking lot her own. 

The court papers said that DeNormandie had handed over all but one of the necessary papers required for the transfer.

Since her filing last year, DeNormandie and his lawyer filed several continuances in the case saying he and his ex-wife were in talks to figure out a solution. 

The filings indicate that a judge granted the two a divorce in February 2023 after six years of back and forth.

Less than two weeks later, the pair filed a joint motion to amend the divorce in which they lowered a lump sum payout to Rathborne from DeNormandie from $4.7 million to $1 million.

It was also agreed that DeNormandie would pay $550,000 to cover his ex-wife’s legal fees, while Rathborne was given the couple’s $7.5 million home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which had also been her childhood home. 

DeNormandie, meanwhile, was awarded their private island, in Maine, worth $1.2 million and a parcel of land in Massachusetts worth $1.3 million.

They also agreed to end litigation between the two over another property which Rathborne owned. 

But in March 2023, Rathborne went back to the courts alleging her ex-husband had not paid her the $1 million agreed, her legal fees or handed over a $2.6 million Antigua home she’d been awarded in the divorce. 

The two then decided to allow the courts to appoint a special master to oversee their dispute as it continued to drag on, although all matters appeared to have been resolved before the parking lot dispute erupted last year. 

It is not the first hiccup that has affected the legal proceedings, with Rathborne accusing DeNormandie in court documents of making her believe their combined wealth was just $90 million – when in actual fact it was $220 million. 

His alleged deception unraveled after she discovered a $532,000 receipt for a batch of wooden duck decoys and other art, which triggered a probe into his finances, court papers revealed. 

DeNormandie hit back at his ex-wife, a Harvard-educated debutante, and described her as being a brilliant but spoiled woman when the two spoke with The Boston Globe separately in 2023 to air out their grievances about one another. 

He also claimed in court papers that her extravagant lifestyle extended to one staffer being paid $80,000 per year to walk their dogs and brush the teeth of their animals. 

The couple first met when they were both students at Harvard University in the 1970s and married in 1973 shortly after graduation.

‘We loved doing the same things,’ Rathborne told the outlet. ‘We loved hiking and sailing. He’s a nature boy. I loved walking in the woods with him.’

After buying a home in Boston, Rathborne relocated to New York and then Los Angeles for her film career.

Their relationship suffered and they first divorced in 1987.

‘We were standing in front of the judge sobbing,’ she said to the Boston Globe as she recalled how the judge asked if they were sure they wanted to end things, with DeNormandie responding: ‘It’s geography, your honor. It’s geography.’ 

The couple then reconciled and remarried and Rathborne raised the couple’s two sons as stay-at-home mother, saying she had been ‘fulfilled’ in her career.

‘I found the work I was born to do and I was longing for children,’ she said to the Boston Globe: ‘I had the privilege of being a mom. I didn’t look back over my shoulder.’

During those years DeNormandie built a sprawling real estate profile of over 100 profiles across New England and the south, with an interest in Louisiana where he now lives.

They include the historic Blackstone Block in Boston, where the Union Oyster House resides, and the luxury real estate enclave Lewis Wharf on the waterfront.

 When things turned messy in the midst of their second divorce, DeNormandie claimed he had been unhappy with Rathborne’s period as a stay-at-home mother.

‘I made all of the money. She was an incredibly capable person who did nothing,’ he said to the Boston Globe. ‘She had seven-day-a-week help all the time.’

Rathborne started divorce proceedings in 2017 after the two grew apart, alleging in court papers that DeNormandie was aggressive and exhibited controlling behavior. 

Both ultimately agreed to split their value down the middle at $110,379,691 apiece with DeNormandie agreeing to pay $600,000 in Rathborne’s legal fees.

Court papers indicate that they will meet in court next month to resolve the issue over the parking lot after discussing it with a judge. 

The Daily Mail approached Rathborne and DeNormandie’s lawyers for comment.