Tichina Arnold and Rico Hines: How a sex tape ended a 4-year marriage
It's been five and a half years since Tichina Arnold and Rico Hines have been separated, but now they've made the split official. In early August, Arnold filed for divorce from her estranged husband, citing "irreconcilable differences" in her documents. It's a big update on the couple, who've been estranged since January 2016.
The divorce trial is likely to bring a lot of media attention, given it comes with the backdrop of Hines' sex tape. The NBA coach isn't the only celeb feeling the heat of divorce. Between August 9 and 13, baseball star Ben Zobrist will face off against his estranged wife Julianne after a controversial divorce filing. The trial is capturing national attention after it became public Julianne cheated on Ben with their pastor Byron Yawn. Over the past month, more and more details about the affair have leaked, including the fact the duo was caught by Yawn's wife.
RELATED ARTICLES
'Married at First Sight': Did Myrla and Gil split? Spoilers hint at couple's divorce
Why is Melinda Gates keeping surname after split? Divorce with Bill Gates finalized at $130B
It's unclear when Arnold and Hines will have to appear in court, but whenever they do expect it to get messy. At the heart of the issue is Hines' sex tape, which led to Arnold announcing their divorce way back in 2016. So why wait five and a half years? There's a lot we don't know.
How a sex tape broke the couple
In 2012, Arnold and Hines tied the knot as an intimate affair in Honolulu, Hawaii. Few details about their relationship have made their way publicly since. We do know that it all ended when she got her hands on several of his sex tapes in 2016. "It's over between Rico and I. This is where I part ways and all bets are off," she reportedly texted close family and friends when she found the videos.
It wasn't just the fact that Hines was cheating, but that he had done so with multiple women. Arnold reportedly named 20 of the women, and dubbed them "extraneous Kim Kardashian wanna be's." Adding to her worries, it emerged that Hines had engaged in unprotected sex, sparking concerns of STDs. The last we heard in 2016, she said she planned to get tested. No update was made since, so it's unclear if those concerns are valid. When the news leaked, sources close to Arnold confirmed a divorce was very much on the cards. "It’s a sordid tale," a source said, while her rep confirmed to PEOPLE that the marriage was over.
That was the last update we got, till now on the duo. It's unclear where they were living since, or if they've ever been in touch. TMZ confirmed that Arnold filed for divorce in August, and listed the separation date as January 12, 2016. Apart from that, TMZ confirmed that she asked to block the court's ability to award spousal support to either of them. Neither of the duo has offered a comment to the press, so there's little else we know at the moment.
Like with the Zobrist's, expect details to come out only as their divorce trial begins when discovery will take place. That's when we will know what they've been doing for the last five years, and why the delay. It's likely they tried to work things out behind the scenes, but we don't know for sure. All we do know is that the sex tape is what broke the marriage, and there's clearly no way forward for them together.