New York Knicks owner James Dolan and his wife Kristin are splitting after 15 years.
The couple told the New York Post on Tuesday that they have decided to end their marriage ‘after much contemplation’.
‘While this decision was a difficult one, we have a great deal of regard for each other and will continue our relationship as business partners and co-parents. Our children remain the center of our lives and their well-being is our top priority.
‘It is in this spirit that we sincerely ask that their privacy and the privacy of our family be respected during this transitional period in our lives,’ the couple said.
New York Knicks owner James Dolan (left) and his wife Kristin (right) are splitting
The couple have two sons, in addition to Dolan’s four older sons from his first marriage.
It’s unclear who will get the couple’s sprawling estate in Oyster Bay, Long Island.
Dolan is worth an estimated $1.5billion according to Celebrity Net Worth.
The couple told the Post that they plan to continue working together on Dolan Family Ventures, an investment firm they started in 2016 which focuses on data, analytics and tech-based businesses.
The couple’s split comes a little more than a month after Dolan was named in a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein.
The lawsuit claimed that Dolan, who served as director of the Weinstein Company board from 2015 to 2016, knew about the producer’s sexually predatory behavior and didn’t do anything about it.
Dolan was named in a previous sexual harassment lawsuit in 2006, when his Knicks general manager was accused of harassing a team executive. That lawsuit was settled for an unspecified amount in 2007.
According to a 2012 Wall Street Journal article, Mrs Dolan (née Reynolds) met her future husband while working at his father’s company, Cablevision.
She started out as an intern, and worked her way up to vice president by the time she married the company’s heir at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in 2002.
Cablevision was sold to French telecom firm Altice in June 2016 for a reported $17.7billion. Before the deal, Mrs Dolan was serving as the company’s chief operating officer.
Since the company was sold, Mrs Dolan has moved on to new business ventures, such as starting her own audience and data company and joining the board of Wendy’s.
Her soon-to-be-ex-husband has focused on his other businesses – the New York Knicks and Rangers – and serving as executive chairman and CEO of the Madison Square Garden Group, where his wife is also a member of the board.
This appears to be the second time that the couple have split.
The couple previously announced they were splitting in 2013, also to the New York Post. They said at the time: ‘We have been in a trial separation since the holidays. It is completely amicable and we ask that people respect our privacy at this time.’
They told the newspaper then that no affairs were responsible for the breakup.