First Amendment
Ex-Wife Can’t Talk About Divorce to Media—Ever, Conn. Court Rules
Posted Jun 24, 2009, 04:54 am CST
By Molly McDonough
The ex-wife of a wealthy skin doctor can't talk about her divorce with the media—ever, Connecticut's Supreme Court has ruled.
The ruling establishes that private waivers of First Amendment free speech rights are "presumptively enforceable," the Connecticut Law Tribune reports.
Still, the state's high court said such decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis and should consider the abilities of the individual waiving rights.
The ruling enforces a confidentiality agreement signed by Madeleine Perricone, the wife of multimillionaire skin doctor Nicholas V. Perricone, who agreed not to talk about her divorce in the early stages of its bitter and contentious filing, the Associated Press reports.
Nicholas Perricone is a well-known skin doctor behind Meriden "cosmeceuticals" which include $250-an-ounce wrinkle cures, several patents and books, the news outlets report.
Litigation over his ex-wife's interview with the New York Post and plans to speak to the television news program 20/20 began in 2005, a year after their divorce became final.
At issue was a waiver Madeleine Perricone signed in 2003. She signed an confidentiality agreement to prevent pretrial discovery documents from being made public, a move meant to protect the interests of Perricone's lucrative skin-care business.
The divorce was final in 2004, and the initial confidentiality agreement was held to be in force, forever.
"Clearly our client is disappointed because she never thought that she was signing something that would bind her forever about the divorce, and the process that she went through," Madeleine Perricone's lead lawyer, Anne C. Dranginis of Hartford, told the Law Tribune. "She's a citizen who's being denied the opportunity to talk about [her divorce] process."
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