ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606030071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
note: below
RICHARD HAMLETT, a Roanoke resident, owes her about $8.9 million in property, legal fees and money, the judge ruled.
America's Sweetheart Debbie Reynolds and her Roanoke-rooted husband, Richard Hamlett, have officially ended their marriage of 12 years.
As part of their divorce decree, the judge awarded Reynolds about $8.9 million in property, attorneys fees and money that Reynolds claimed Hamlett had borrowed from her.
A judge signed their divorce May 16. But it had remained a secret - under a confidential seal in Las Vegas - until her attorneys filed judgments against Hamlett in Roanoke and Roanoke County circuit courts.
"Debbie is saddened by this, she really is," her attorney, Theresa Dowling of Las Vegas, said Friday. "Ms. Reynolds was madly in love with this man. She didn't want a divorce."
Dowling said Reynolds was the one who had filed for divorce, but she was "forced to do it" because Hamlett indicated "he has another love interest.''
John Acree, one of Hamlett's attorneys in Roanoke, said Hamlett didn't want to comment on the divorce.
Acree did say, however, that Hamlett has already filed an appeal in Nevada. "He obviously is in staunch disagreement with a lot of things that were said in that decree," Acree said. "So he's fighting it."
Hamlett's attorney in Las Vegas didn't return calls Friday afternoon.
Reynolds, the star of "Singin' in the Rain," "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and many other films, had previously been married to singer Eddie Fisher and shoe mogul Harry Karl.
She and Hamlett me at a cocktail party in 1993 in Reno, Nev. She married him six months later, May 25, 1984, in a private ceremony in Miami Beach. She said Hamlett, a well-known Roanoke developer, proposed to her on their second date. She said he won her heart with a combination of strength and tenderness.
Reynolds became a part-time resident of the Roanoke Valley, living in the home she and Hamlett shared on Sugarloaf Mountain.
There have been news reports that the marriage was on the rocks as far back as 1993. An October 1994 story in Vanity Fair magazine quoted Reynolds as saying that her purchase of a Las Vegas hotel had contributed to a split with Hamlett. "It all became focused on the hotel and the rooms and the parking structure. ... So I saved my property and lost my marriage," she said.
Hamlett didn't appear in court to contest the Nevada proceedings, Dowling said. Dowling said she couldn't talk about portions of the case that remained sealed.
Tommy Joe Williams, a Roanoke attorney who is trying to collect the judgments from Hamlett here, said Friday that as far as he knows none of the news media, tabloid or otherwise, had picked up on the divorce.
But the divorce decree had to be made public record when he filed the cash and property judgments against Hamlett, who splits his time between the Roanoke Valley and Las Vegas.
With the attorneys' fees awarded by the Las Vegas judge plus other miscellaneous items - including a crystal chandelier and a station wagon - the total judgment comes out to more than $8.9 million.
"This is not supposed to leave him broke," Reynolds' attorney, Dowling, said. "It's just money owed. She's not getting any kind of windfall."
Reynolds has been sweating out financial problems for some time at her Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. In April the hotel reported it was working out a loan deal in an effort to stave off about 200 creditors.
The divorce decree was signed by Judge Gloria Sanchez of the Clark County, Nev., District Court. As part of the decree, Reynolds gets to keep her hotel. She also received more than one-half the value of various properties around the Roanoke Valley. These properties, worth about $2.5 million, include condos on Peters Creek Road and a $75,000 home on Grandin Road.
The judge also ordered Hamlett to come up with nearly $5 million to repay a loan - plus interest - that Reynolds said she had made to Hamlett some time ago.
In the Roanoke Valley, Williams' job is to put the judgments against Hamlett on record, then try to collect the money.
"Basically, I'm to wait until Mr. Hamlett walks into my door and hands me an $8.5 million check," Williams said. "I'm hoping that will happen this afternoon; but in all likelihood, I'll have to remind him."
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File/1985 Debbie Reynolds and her Roanoke-rootedby CNBhusband, Richard Hamlett, early in their marriage.