Jack White’s tumultuous divorce ended quietly right before Thanksgiving. The former White Stripes frontman’s split from Karen Elson, a British model and singer-songwriter, began with a party the two threw together but eventually involved a restraining order with a request that White get his head examined. According to the Nashville Tennessean, a county judge approved the final agreement on November 26.
The divorce effectively preserves the status quo between White and Elson. She will be the main parent with custody over the couple’s two children. White will be entitled to roughly 150 days with them annually. He’ll also pay for health insurance and child support. They each get to hold onto their current property, and White doesn’t have to pay alimony. The two will, though, have to divvy up their various cars. The 1960 Ford Thunderbird, 1976 electric Citicar, and 2013 Tesla SP will all stay with White.
A rep for White told the Tennesseean the Blunderbuss artist and Third Man Records boss wouldn’t be commenting on the breakup. Elson hasn’t directly addressed the divorce via Twitter. (Stlll, a December 2 tweet from Elson might melt the hardest heart: “Happiness is snuggles in bed with my kids and kitties…nothing better than this.”)
White and Elson married on June 1, 2005, in Brazil, after meeting during the filming of the video for “Blue Orchid,” from that year’s White Stripes LP Get Behind Me Satan. In the summer of 2011, less than two weeks after their sixth anniversary, White and Elson announced plans to divorce, which they would celebrate “with a positive swing bang hum dinger.” Elson submitted the formal divorce papers in September 2011.
After moving slowly, the divorce proceedings took a dark turn this summer, with Elson filing a restraining order and painting White as volatile and, incidentally, really not a fan of Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach. White denied the claims, with his attorney writing, “Mr. White does not want to be portrayed as something he is not, violent toward his wife and children.” Now, thankfully, that all has come to what seems to be a peacable end.
For that last bit, White made SPIN’s 25 Most Memorable Quotes of 2013.
