14 DAY TRIAL // Hollywood star Dennis Hopper is dying, having lost the long battle against prostate cancer, they say. Understandably, news that he had filed for divorce from his deathbed couldn’t but come as a shock to his fans and the media alike, though speculation claims this is not exactly his decision, but rather that of his daughter. In documents secured by The Daily Beast, Victoria Hopper, his wife of many years and the one he’s trying to divorce, makes the same claim – along with many others, more troubling.
Mrs. Hopper argues in the recently filed petition that her husband is a regular pot smoker, because he’s found that marijuana alleviates some of the pain he’s constantly under. That’s not the worse part, of course, since the statute of medical marijuana in California is well outlined, but rather that Mr. Hopper has repeatedly done so these past months in the presence of his and Victoria’s 6-year-old daughter, Galen. According to the documents, he continues to do so to this day.
Moving on with the revelations about their married life, Victoria says Hopper threatened to kill her many a time (sometimes if she would bring up divorce, others just like that, with no apparent reason), and would keep loaded weapons around the house for this specific purpose. This comes on the heels of allegations that their marriage had been crumbling for a while, as the disease took a toll on the actor and he made a habit of taking all his frustrations out on his wife.
“In 2009, I discovered a pistol with multiple rounds of ammunition in Petitioner’s bedroom drawer. The gun and ammunition was unsecure and easily accessible, including to Galen [Victoria and Dennis’ six-year-old daughter]. I also located a loaded shotgun, unsecure, in our bedroom closet. I told Petitioner to remove the guns from our home. Petitioner agreed. I immediately moved the guns to a secure temporary location and later had them removed by a police officer,” Victoria states in court documents.
Strangely enough, she also says that Dennis personally told her he doesn’t want a divorce but rather that he’s pushed into it by his family, who are thus trying to cut her from the will. “In addition to the threats, Victoria claims that the whole marriage dissolution is not Hopper’s desire at all, but rather ‘a result of estate planning by other family members’ who presumably want her cut off financially. Hopper, she says, told her ‘he does not want to divorce’ and ‘that other people are insisting he take care of them upon his death’,” The Daily Beast writes, citing the same court papers.
The problem is, Victoria goes on to say, that she has no means of supporting her daughter and herself, because Hopper repeatedly prohibited her from earning her own money, therefore divorce is out of the question because she would only be left with what is stipulated in the prenup. This, it would seem, is not enough to provide for Galen as well.