The ex-wife of pop legend Phil Collins has been handed $200,000 after begging a judge to urgently release cash in her latest divorce battle – claiming she didn’t have the money to treat a ‘dire’ medical condition that could cripple her for life, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Orianne Cevey pleaded with the court handling her fight with estranged toyboy husband Thomas Bates for a speedy ‘interim distribution’ hearing to ensure her ‘survival’.
Her exact condition was not outlined in the court filing.
But Swiss-born Cevey – who won a $46million divorce settlement from Collins in 2008 – suffered spinal cord damage in a routine op years after a serious neck injury while taking part in a martial arts exhibition in Paris.
At times, she has appeared frail amid the acrimonious and lengthy court battle in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which has been rumbling on for nearly twice the length of her third failed marriage to the former male escort.
Orianne Cevey, the ex-wife of pop legend Phil Collins has been handed $200,000 after begging a judge to urgently release cash in her latest divorce battle with estranged toyboy husband Thomas Bates
Cevey pleaded with the court handling her fight with estranged toyboy husband Thomas Bates for a speedy ‘interim distribution’ hearing to ensure her ‘survival’
The 50-year-old jewelry designer begged Judge Jessica Marra to fast-track the wrangle between her latest husband of just 15 months so she can get cash to treat her ‘debilitating disability’.
Despite her 2008 injury and botched 2014 surgery, Cevey was photographed in 2020 with her boxing trainer while controversially ensconced in Collins’s Miami Beach mansion with then new husband Bates, 15 year her junior.
She also posted videos of her boxing with a trainer on Instagram in June this year. It is unclear if the training is part of her regimen to keep mobile.
However, she said in legal papers to Broward District Circuit Court that she went into her latest marriage in 2020 with a ‘debilitating disability’ that Bates knew all about when they wed.
Her attorney wrote that ‘in the past few weeks’ Cevey’s ‘health condition has worsened and appears to be deteriorating’.
She added it had ‘become severe and is causing her to be repeatedly admitted to the emergency room due to injuries from blackouts and falls.’
The lawyer added: ‘Wife cannot afford to diagnose or treat without access to her funds.
‘The situation has become dire. Wife was recently a quadriplegic and is at risk of not being able to walk again if she is unable to access the medical care that she needs at this time.
‘Wife is in need of access to her funds to pay for her necessities, including to pay for her utilities, the care of pets and her urgent medical needs.
‘The wife’s medical situation cannot be understated…. the wife’s medical situation is beyond necessity now. It is dire.’
The financial battle in the divorce revolves around who gets what from a company Cevey set up with struggling tribute band musician Bates, called O & T Holdings LLC.
The entity is holding the proceeds of the warring couple’s waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale which sold for $7.75million after going into foreclosure.
Cevey and former tribute band musician Bates luxuriated in their new Fort Lauderdale pad together until he left shortly before divorce proceedings began in December 2021, leaving her to pay the bills
The couple – who lived in Phil Collins’s Miami mansion in 2020 – moved into this six-bedroom waterfront property in Fort Lauderdale in 2021 before splitting later that year
The interior of the home where Bates and Cevey lived up until their split in 2021
Chain-smoking Cevey’s attorney wrote that cash for medical treatment was tied up in ‘trust accounts’ due to her estranged husband’s ‘prolonged and frivolous litigation… because he wants to leach off Ms Collins’.
Judge Marra subsequently agreed a motion to hand Cevey $200,000 and give the same amount to 35-year-old Bates while the hostilities continue.
Meanwhile, DailyMail.com can reveal Bates – who once roared around in a $340,000 Aston Martin supercar that Cevey leased for him – has left Florida for California under much more straitened circumstances.
His latest financial affidavit to the court shows he is now earning $500 a week as a ‘musician/bar tender’ at a Cuban grille in exclusive Marina del Ray.
But it also reveals he is planning a change of career, maybe due to his now years-long association with a succession of attorneys. In the submission he says he is student studying for the tough Law School Admission Test.
Ironically, it was in Los Angeles that the Florida native began working as a male escort. He moved there to try to make it in the music business – but also hooked up with a company called Cowboys 4 Angels, using the name Ryan.
He headed back to Florida when the music scene didn’t work out, yet was still on the escort website where he advertised himself as a ‘sexy intellectual’ with degrees in philosophy and political science.
Cevey reportedly left Phil blindsided by moving Bates, who she has since divorced, into the palatial pad following their secret Las Vegas nuptials
In the divorce Cevey claimed Phil lost his musical talents and started abusing pain killers, according to TMZ and said he refused to shower for nearly a year
Cevey selected him from the site and it is understood the couple had their first meeting at an exclusive five-star hotel in Miami Beach.
On the Cowboys 4 Angels website, ‘Ryan in Los Angeles’ was touted as ‘the classic, charismatic Los Angeles gentleman, who is definitely guaranteed to exceed your expectations and show you an unforgettable experience!’
He was pictured sporting designer stubble and showing off his tanned six-pack with an open plaid shirt and with one hand behind his head.
Cevey’s latest financial woes come amid a tumultuous divorce battle that has included Bates demanding the ex-wife of Genesis legend Collins, 73, be jailed for not paying his car lease.
DailyMail.com has also revealed Cevey struggled to sell their 8,000 sq ft waterfront pad because dog poop ‘consistently’ littered living room coffee tables.
Court papers said the six-bedroom mansion permanently reeked of cigarettes, to the horror of the realtor.
It was originally on the market in August 2022 for $10.95million before the price was reduced to $8.49million and then sold for a further $740,000 drop.
Bates argued in court papers that Cevey ‘devalued the marital home… by allowing it to fall into a state of disrepair’.
His attorney’s filing said that at one point the realtor told him that ‘there was no way she could successfully market the house’.
It added: ‘There was a 3x3ft hole in the ceiling of the guest room with constant water leakage, heavily deteriorating landscaping and trash in the front of the home, a rampant fruit fly infestation…’
And it went on to say there was ‘dog fecal matter consistently on the coffee tables in the marital home’s living room and a perpetual smell of cigarette smoke inside the home as the petitioner/wife insisted on smoking inside the house constantly despite the consistent requests of the realtor to not do so’.
The warring couple moved into the magnificent spread, complete with stunning pool, after being kicked out of Collins’s Miami Beach mansion by a court order.
They had installed themselves in the rock legend’s $40million ocean front pad in summer 2020 after marrying secretly in an Elvis-themed wedding in Las Vegas – while Collins was away and without his knowledge. Cevey had been living there with the In The Air Tonight singer after reuniting with him in 2015.
Orianne Cevey, Phil Collins and their two sons Matthew and Nicholas at the Dreaming on the Beach Gala at Fillmore Miami Beach in 2018
Cevey divorced the Genesis star, with whom she shares sons Nicholas, 22, and Matthew, 18, (in 2008 after nine-years of marriage in a bitter split which saw her receive a reported $47M settlement
However, the new couple’s relationship soon turned fiery with Bates claiming in divorce papers that Cevey physically assaulted him ‘on several occasions’ – allegedly once threatening to cut off his ‘private parts’.
Bates claims he received the alleged threat to slice off his genitals after returning to the Fort Lauderdale home from spending Thanksgiving in 2021 with his parents at their home in nearby Lighthouse Point.
He arrived to find Cevey had ‘secretly removed’ his clothes and other possessions and he asked for them back.
‘Wife, who has a ferocious temper, threatened husband with bodily harm (by cutting off his private parts) when he asked for his clothes and personal property’, said his filing.
‘The wife, who has earned a 3rd degree black belt designation and is trained in boxing, previously physically assaulted husband on several occasions prior to separation. On one occasion, husband had to scream for the housekeeper to help him exit the house to avoid wife’s assault.
‘Husband voluntarily vacated the marital residence for his safety.’
