Here’s the situation. I’m 31, my parents are both 60 or so. They got divorced in 1996, and my dad since got remarried a couple years later. Their divorce contract had him paying alimony while my brother & I were living with my mom, as well as for our colleges. She also received his pension from a job he previously worked at for 25 years.
About 5 years ago, my mom met a guy and they fell in love. They bought a house together and have been engaged for the last 3 years, ring and all, but my mom has openly talked about how they will not get married because if they did, she would lose her stake in the pension, which is all she is currently getting from the divorce. Right now she works part time as a teacher and her fiancee works full time in a management title. My mom and dad haven’t remained friends but they do occasionally talk.
About a month ago, my dad called me and mentioned that my mom called him looking to get more money from him. He was retired for a couple of years but went back to work at a new company, and she seems to think that she is entitled to start receiving alimony because of it. He told her to go to hell and hung up.
Yesterday he called me again to tell me that he received a letter from a lawyer that she will be pursuing legal action against him for new alimony payments. She stated that she has remained single since the divorce and is NOT in a committed relationship, which apparently is what makes the difference here. Now he is getting a lawyer of his own to fight this, and asked me to testify that my mother in fact has been and is currently living in a common law relationship.
He just called me again to ask that if my mom is going to claim that she is NOT in a relationship to not spend any time around her fiancee (visit them, or have them visit me at my home) and that doing so would be a sign of approval for them trying to defraud him. Note that my mother tried to do the same thing with me with my dad and his second wife, but I refused to let her make demands like that, especially since she never did anything bad to me.
Anyway, I feel like this is 15 years ago all over again, and I’m stuck between two fighting parents. Note that I haven’t discussed any of this with my mom yet.
IANAL, nor do I know how divorce arrangements like this work, but I can tell this is going to get ugly and create a big rift in my family. I told him that if I have to get dragged into this, I will testify the truth but I’m not taking sides.
So how do these situations usually play out?