Divorce sucks in general. But to have your divorce played out in public can reach new heights of … well … sucking.
“Divorce really kicks your ass,” says Mary Jo Eustace, who woke up one day to find out her husband, actor Dean McDermott, had left her for Hollywood starlet Tori Spelling.
Cue the tabloid frenzy.
“I’d get constant calls to sell my story or to be on reality shows. Friends sold stories about me to the tabloids. And I was constantly portrayed as this bitter, old, crazy ex-wife. Just lie after lie.”
Eustace — best known for her cooking series What’s For Dinner and He Said, She Said — did eventually get through it, turning her divorce experience into her just-released book, Divorce Sucks.
It’s a part tell-all, part no-nonsense guide on what to do (and definitely not do) during a divorce.
Which begs the question — why would she want to relive such a terrible experience?
“I think the book was a perfect combination where I could be funny, and help people by sharing my personal stories,” she says. “Divorce is not something people talk about. They assume it won’t happen to them. And when it does, it can be horrendous.”
In Divorce Sucks, Eustace’s own experiences occasionally border on the bizarre. Like her questionable decision to meet the “other woman, Spelling, only to have Spelling use that encounter as fodder for her own autobiographic book.
“My experiences are by no means the worst,” claims Eustace. “The divorce stories I’ve heard from people can be scary — everything from being locked out of their houses, to hiding assets, to stealing the family dog.”
Eustace — who is originally from Toronto and currently lives in Los Angeles with her two children — says the underlying message of her book is learning to like yourself post-divorce.
“It’s about accepting that you’re worthy to enjoy life again, and patting yourself on the back. If you’re able to do that, it’s a major thing,” she says. “If you’re angry and bitter, you’re not going to enjoy your new life.”
