Actress Tichina Arnold officially has filed for divorce from her estranged husband Rico Hines, nearly five-and-a-half years after separating from the Sacramento Kings coach following his sex tape scandal.
According to TMZ, the “Everybody Hates Chris” star initially separated from Hines on Jan. 12, 2016, nearly four years after they tied the knot in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 18, 2012. In court documents obtained by the media outlet, the actress filed for divorce sometime this week, citing irreconcilable differences. Not much detail has been made public about the proceedings. However, the former couple shares no children and Arnold is seeking to block the court’s ability to award spousal support to either of the parties.
Arnold originally announced that she was divorcing her husband after a video surfaced nearly five years ago that featured the NBA coach engaged in sexual activity with a mistress. Though the 52-year-old star maintained that she wasn’t the one who leaked the tape, she did, however, admit to sending it to her close loved ones as a way to sort of “announce her split.”
During an interview with “PEOPLE,” the star from the CBS-TV show “The Neighbors” told the outlet she didn’t “expect it to go public the way it did” and vowed that “no one from my side leaked it.” She spoke candidly about her feelings upon discovering the tape and how she felt viewing its content, expressing that she felt “betrayed.”
“I had that feeling of, you know, beyond him being my husband, this is supposed to be my friend, my confidant. Somebody who I can trust. And when you can’t trust the person that you sleep with every night, there’s a problem,” she continued. “I could no longer trust him. I could no longer lay with him. And it doesn’t make him a horrible person. We all make mistakes, but not with me and not on my time and not in my life.”
At the time, she told reporters she had no regrets about how she handled the situation, especially since it reportedly hadn’t been the first time Hines had stepped out on their marriage. “I’m sure there are a lot of people that are upset with me, but it’s not their problem,” she said. “This was my issue that I needed to deal with, and I’m old enough to deal with my issues. I saved myself first, before I was on a sinking ship. I just have too much to lose for someone else’s indiscretions.”
Neither Arnold nor Hines has spoken publicly about the divorce since news broke of Arnold’s filing.
