Noella Bergener claims James Bergener is trying to 'torture' her with divorce
'The Real Housewives of Orange County' star Noella Bergener has claimed in an interview that her estranged husband and partner for five years, James Bergener, is trying to torture her by stalling their divorce. Noella, who shares a two-year-old son, with him expresses hopes that James, 50, will be soon reaching a happy place where he doesn't feel like he needs to look at the past and think about having control over her.
The 'Real Housewives of Orange County' alum Noella Bergener, 36, told Page Six exclusively, "There's a lot in divorce that's about control and micro-managing and the kind of wanting to torture the ex. There's a little bit of that at play going on here." The fans and viewers of 'RHOC' have watched the Bravo newbie having a legal battle on screen. At the beginning of filming, James fled their Orange County mansion for the couple's residence in Puerto Rico.
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James, a personal injury attorney, also known as 'Sweet James' blindsided Noella with the divorce papers from the Caribbean, written in Spanish. Noella expressed herself by saying, " It was truly surreal. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. I had to pick myself up, though, and by the grace of God we ended up making a bit of progress, figuring out settlement details together." Nevertheless, she recalled it as 'frustrating' and claimed that James is demanding more custody of their 2-year-old son, who is autistic and needs extensive therapy in Orange County.
On the other hand, in the wake of the split, James allegedly cut off Noella's access to their finances, leaving a credit card that can only purchase essentials vis Amazon and groceries from Instacart. Noella said," I found a house that I could move our child to. I could downsize, I could be in control of my own finances and we can just be done with this. Sadly it doesn't look like there's any end in sight any time soon."
The couple was together for six years after meeting online and were married in June of 2020. Distractify writes that the 'RHOC' star claims that James hasn't seen their son since his exit, and she hasn't been able to track him down. Noella later revealed on the show that James is partying on the island of Mykonos, Greece after filing for divorce. Court documents reveal that Noella would allow her soon-to-be-ex-husband visitation rights, but she wants sole guardianship of James Jr. Noella is also reportedly asking for spousal support.
However, whether James can provide proper spousal support is debatable as there are reports that he owes an estimated $6 million in back taxes to the IRS. TMZ previously reported that James suffered two federal tax liens for 2018 and 2019, owing $4 million to the federal government and a separate $1.85 million to the state of California.