Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone, star of classic films including the Rocky and Rambo franchises, has been accused of hiding marital assets by his wife of 25 years.
Jennifer Flavin made the allegations in divorce documents filed in a Florida court.
The former model began proceedings against Stallone on Friday, saying that the marriage was “irretrievably broken”, US magazine Closer Weekly reported on Wednesday.
“The husband has engaged in the intentional dissipation, depletion and/or waste of marital assets, which has had an adverse economic impact on the marital estate,” the filing said.
“Pursuant to Section 61.075, Florida Statues, equity dictates that the wife be compensated and made whole by receiving an unequal distribution of the marital assets in her favour.”
Stallone and Flavin are the latest high-profile couple to announce their divorce.
Earlier this month, Australian billionaire media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his model wife Jerry Hall finalised their divorce, joining Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who ended his marriage with MacKenzie Scott in April 2019, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who split from Melinda French last year, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who filed for divorce in June.
High profile divorces — in pictures
Stallone, 76, has a net worth of $400 million, according to wealth tracking platform Celebrity Net Worth.
He first rose to fame in 1976 after writing the screenplay for the first Rocky film — about a struggling boxer from Philadelphia.
Stallone was paid only $23,000 for his starring role as Rocky Balboa, but the film was a critical success despite its $1m budget and went on to earn $225m at the box office, and was nominated for 10 Academy awards, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
In total, Stallone’s films have grossed about $4 billion in global box office takings, primarily from the Rocky and Rambo franchises, as well as the Rocky spin-off Creed and other blockbuster titles including Cliffhanger, The Expendables, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad.
“Between the 1970s and 2012 alone, Sylvester Stallone earned $300m in base film salaries,” Celebrity Net Worth estimated.
In 2018, Stallone founded Balboa Productions, a film and television production studio, with producer Braden Aftergood. The studio has produced films including Rambo: Last Blood and The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil.
Meanwhile, Flavin, 54, is estimated to have a net worth of $10m and has appeared in a number of reality TV shows including American Gladiator and Hollywood Women.
She is also the co-founder of Serious Skin Care, a company specialising in skin treatment and beauty products, which are sold on the Home Shopping Network.
In the divorce filing, Flavin has also requested that the court prevent Stallone from divesting any further marital assets.
“The husband should be enjoined from, selling, transferring, assigning, encumbering, or dissipating any assets during the pendency of proceedings,” the filing said.
In January this year, British singer-songwriter Adele paid $58m for Stallone and Flavin’s Beverly Hills mansion.
The mountain retreat measuring 21,000 square feet is set on a 1.4-hectare estate in the upmarket Beverly Park Terrace gated community.
Stallone listed the property for $110m in January 2021 but dropped the price to $85m in May last year after moving to a $35m estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The couple also sold their La Quinta, California, holiday home in May 2020 for $3.1m. They bought the house in 2010 for $4.5m and had been trying to sell the property since 2014, Celebrity Net Worth said.
“In February 2022, Sylvester [also] paid $18.2m for an estate in Hidden Hills, California,” it added.
In 2020, a Panerai watch worn by Stallone in his 1996 film Daylight fetched $214,200 at an auction by Phillips. Stallone has been credited with reviving the watch brand.
Before moving to Florida, the actor also sold off about 500 items he had collected during his film career at an auction in December.
Hosted by Julien’s Auctions, the sale was expected to raise about $1.5m, with items ranging from Rocky III boxing gloves to Rambo headbands, scripts, notebooks, costumes and props.
“He actually is relocating, he's selling his house, so that's a perfect time for anyone to downsize,” Martin Nolan, executive director at Julien's Auctions, said at the time.
“We expect a huge response to this [auction] announcement because people have pent-up demand for iconic items like this, authentic items coming directly from the man himself.”
Stallone and Flavin married in 1997 and have three daughters.
