Tori Spelling’s split from Dean McDermott may have been a long time coming, but it wasn’t until the couple’s youngest daughter asked a heartbreaking question that the “Beverly Hills, 90210” star ultimately made the decision to walk away from her 18-year marriage.
During a recent episode of her podcast “misSPELLING,” the 51-year-old opened up about how Hattie, 13, once asked a heartbreaking question that forced her to reevaluate her life.
Spelling recalled her daughter once asking her, “Have you ever considered what it would be like to be with someone else and not Dad and get treated right?”
TORI SPELLING FILES FOR DIVORCE FROM DEAN MCDERMOTT AFTER 18-YEAR MARRIAGE
Tori Spelling said her daughter once asked her about “getting treated right” when it comes to relationships. (Andrew J. Cunningham/Getty Images)
While Spelling said Hattie “loves her dad,” the children were aware the marriage had become toxic.
“It got to the point where it was worse for the kids to see us together,” Spelling said. “We could no longer hide what was happening, the fights.”
“He was an addict going through a lot, and a lot of it was taken out on me. And she saw that,” Spelling continued. “I didn’t like the person I was, trying to raise strong humans and just taking it and taking it.”
“On my part, at least, the want of kids, just always wanting their parents together, I think kept me from making what was outwardly a better decision for them than what they saw between two partners,” she added. “That kept me in the relationship far too long, and it ultimately, I feel, did a disservice to my kids.”
Spelling and ex-husband Dean McDermott share five children together. (Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation)
The former couple share five children together – Beau, 8, Finn, 12, Hattie, 13, Stella, 16, and Liam, 18.
Spelling first filed for divorce on March 29, 2024. She cited June 17, 2023, as the couple’s date of separation. The actress requested spousal support from McDermott and asked to terminate the court’s ability to award spousal support to her estranged husband.
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Tori Spelling filed for divorce in March 2024. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Spelling also requested full custody of the children along with joint legal custody.
McDermott first announced the couple’s separation on Instagram in June 2023, but quickly deleted the post.
“It’s with great sadness and a very very heavy heart that after 18 years together and 5 amazing children, that @torispelling and I have decided to go our separate ways, and start a new journey of our own,” he wrote at the time.
DEAN MCDERMOTT BLAMES TORI SPELLING SPLIT ON HIS DRUNKEN RAGES, HER CHOICE TO HAVE BARN ANIMALS IN THE BEDROOM
That same year, McDermott spoke about how his struggle with addiction eventually led to the couple’s downfall.
“All Tori’s ever done to this day is want me to be happy and healthy, and I inflicted a lot of damage and pain on that woman. I’m taking accountability for that today,” McDermott, who checked himself into a rehab facility, told the Daily Mail at the time. “And it’s the biggest amend that I’m ever going to have to make.”
Spelling said her children started to notice the toxicity in her marriage to McDermott. (Getty Images)
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“Alcohol made me feel good enough,” he continued. “I started feeling good enough until it got to a point where it didn’t – it ended up in isolation. It ended up with me drinking a fifth of tequila every night, seven days a week, and a handful of narcos [prescription meds] by myself with a beautiful family in the other room.”
“That’s what it led to and that’s what led to the brokenness and to what happened between me and Tori. I couldn’t do it anymore,” he added. “I couldn’t live that life anymore. I was tired of the anger and the yelling.”
When he was in this state, McDermott said he would go into rages that left Spelling and their five children “petrified.” He would also pass out to the point where Spelling felt the need to make sure he was still alive.
McDermott celebrated one year of sobriety in July 2024.
