Phil Collins and ex-wife Orianne Cevey, Collins’ third wife, have had a long and complicated relationship. They married in 1999 and divorced in 2008, with Cevey receiving a $47 million settlement from Collins. However, they reunited in 2015: Collins told Billboard in January 2016, “I bought [a house in Miami] about six months ago. I’m actually back with my third wife — I haven’t really talked about it. We’ve been together for a while, and nobody’s noticed.”
Things soured after that, though, when Cevey eventually took over Collins’ mansion with her then-new husband. Speaking of the husband, there have been fascinating developments there, too. Cevey married Thomas Bates secretly in 2020 but they’re now in the midst of divorce proceedings. That process has been enlightening, as Page Six reports Cevey found Bates (while still living with Collins) on a male escort site called Cowboys 4 Angels, where Bates described himself as a “sexy intellectual.”
Divorce paperwork reads, “At the time the parties met, Husband was employed by an escort service. […] The Wife selected Husband through the escort service and insisted on dating him. The parties’ relationship rapidly progressed into a meaningful romantic relationship. Wife persuaded Husband to leave the escort service to marry her.”
The situation took a turn after they left Collins’ home. The paperwork notes of an incident in which Bates returned to his and Cevey’s shared home after spending Thanksgiving with his family:
“Wife, who has a ferocious temper, threatened Husband with bodily harm (by cutting off his private parts) when he asked for his clothes and personal property. The Wife, who has earned a 3rd degree black belt designation and is trained in boxing, previously physically assaulted Husband on several occasions prior to separation. On one occasion, Husband had to scream for the housekeeper to help him exit the house to avoid Wife’s assault. […] Husband voluntarily vacated the marital residence for his safety.”
The divorce was made public in December 2021, when Cevey wrote on Instagram of the dissolution of her marriage, “I believe the emotional distress of the COVID quarantine caused me to act in ways and do things that were out of character.”