Robin Williams’ wife files for divorce after nearly 19 years

Shazbot! Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams has just become another Hollywood member of the Dead Marriage Society. His wife of nearly two decades (and the former nanny for his eldest son) recently filed for divorce.

E! News recently obtained a petition, filed in San Francisco Superior Court on March 21, which reveals that Williams and wife Marsha Garces Williams have been living separately since New Year’s Eve. Garces Williams cited irreconcilable differences and is seeking sole custody of their 16-year-old son, Cody, with visitation rights for Williams. The comic’s publicist, Mara Buxbaum, confirmed the couple’s split with E! and AFP on March 26.

The couple also has an 18-year-old daughter, Zelda. Williams, 55, has an adult son, Zachary Pym, from his first marriage to Valerie Valardi; this marriage ended in divorce in 1988.

Garces Williams, 51, started out as Zachary Williams’ nanny during the star’s marriage to Valardi in the 1980s. Williams eventually promoted Garces Williams to his personal assistant, and they married in April 1989. Two years later, the couple founded the film-production company Blue Wolf Productions, and Garces Williams would work as a producer on some of the actor’s later movies such as Mrs. Doubtfire and Patch Adams. The estranged spouses also own the philanthropic organization The Windfall Foundation.

Specific reasons for the separation and divorce have not been publicized, but Williams admitted in 2006 that he had “found himself drinking again” after 20 years on the wagon, according to E! Online. He subsequently checked into a rehab clinic in Oregon.

Robin Williams received his big break in the late 1970s playing the wacky outer-space alien Mork from Ork on the TV sitcoms Happy Days and Mork & Mindy. While continuing a highly successful standup-comedy career, he also earned a reputation as a more “serious” actor with acclaimed performances in Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, The Fisher King, and Insomnia. He won an Academy Award in 1998 for his supporting role as a psychologist in the Matt Damon/Ben Affleck drama Good Will Hunting.

Let’s hope Mork has some good lessons on marriage and divorce to report back to Orson. In the meantime, here’s some advice on how to create a better divorce.