Phil Collins’ ex-wife is pulling every trick out of her designer handbag to get the Genesis frontman to fork over more cash and allow her to stay in his multi-million dollar Miami manse despite having married someone else … this time claiming she can’t leave as she has a debilitating spinal condition.
The claims come just days after Orianne Cevey, 46, contended in court that Collins sunk into alcoholism and drug addiction during their marriage and began neglecting his hygiene to the point where he didn’t bathe for months at a time. Two days ago, Collins slammed Cevey’s story calling it “a litany of demonstrably false, immaterial, impertinent, scandalous and scurrilous allegations which have nothing to do with the legal claims in this case.”
Cevey has been claiming she is owed half of the value of Collin’s $40 million mansion and now says she physically can’t leave because of the previously unreported medical condition.
Cevey claims she can’t possibly “disrupt her daily regime and access to special equipment at the luxury waterfront property in Miami Beach or she would become ‘wheelchair bound,” according to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.
But the jewelry designer has in fact taken dozens of trips in recent years, flying to exotic locations across the globe and posting photos and videos of her adventures on social media.
“Cevey suffered damage to her spinal cord in a routine operation in 2014 after suffering a neck injury in a martial arts exhibition in Paris,” according to the court affidavit obtained by the paper. The lawyers contend that Cevey must now “undergo five hours of physical therapy and training per day, Monday through Saturday … in order to simply maintain her current condition,” and one document states, “she undergoes three hours of therapy in the home on various equipment purchased for her therapy needs, and in the home’s swimming pool, and another two hours of therapy at a nearby therapy center.
‘Without this rigorous, and ongoing therapy regimen, which has been part of her daily routine since March, 2015 and is closely monitored by her therapist at a local therapy center, Orianne’s physical condition would rapidly deteriorate and likely result in her becoming wheelchair bound again.”
However, Cevey hasn’t let her condition slow her down in the past. According to her many posts on Instagram, she has spent the last six years since her injury jet setting round the world, riding bikes, boxing, kayaking, parting on private yachts and even mountain climbing in Switzerland.
According to her website, “In 2014, (Ceves) suffered a neck injury after a martial arts exhibition in Paris against Jesse Glover, Bruce Lee’s first student. After a seemingly straightforward operation, she woke up paralyzed from the neck down due to a medical error. Day-by-day and step-by-step, she fought to regain her ability to walk and three years later, against all odds, she climbed one of the highest mountain ranges in Switzerland, the Breithorn, peaking at 13,661 feet.”
This year alone, despite COVID-19, it looks like she has taken at least seven trips out of Miami — including the August trip to Las Vegas in which she married her now (much younger) husband, Thomas Bates, 31, and constantly posts pictures of her strenuous boxing workouts on Instagram.
A source close to Collins slammed Ceves, telling the Daily Mail: “She is making this big claim in court papers, but she hardly looks like a person in need of daily physical therapy, let alone the kind of therapy that can only be done at Phil’s house. Who claims they can’t leave the house or they’ll be in a wheel-chair and then climbs a mountain?”
Collins and Cevey who share sons Nicholas and Matthew, divorced in 2008, and Cevey got a massive $45 million settlement. The couple reunited in 2016, but split for good earlier this year after her secret wedding to Bates.
The two are now mired in a legal battle for the Miami house, as Cevey claims that Collins gave her an oral agreement to split the proceeds with her — something he denies.
Sources close to Collins told the Daily Mail, Cevey is “holding the house hostage” while trying to get a settlement — and that Collins wants to spend Christmas at the house with his sons, but may now not be able to.
“The truth is (Cevey) enjoys living in luxury and she wants to frustrate her husband’s plans to spend Christmas at the property,” a source told the paper. “It’s all part of a transparent ploy to push him into a situation where he will come to a settlement — as if the previous one wasn’t enough. It’s all just heart-breaking for Phil who decided to buy the home, and get back together with her, for the sake of the children. … Now she is holding it hostage, using delay tactics and fabricating all sorts of stories to squeeze even more out of him.”