Sara Evans a Single Gal Again

Country star's divorce from Craig Schelske finalized; she gets to keep Nashville home and will shell out $600,000 in alimony; exes agree to drop allegations of adultery and other marital misconduct against each other

By Natalie Finn Sep 28, 2007 11:38 PMTags

It's sometimes hard to remember there was a reason for all that mudslinging going on between Sara Evans and Craig Schelske.

A Tennessee judge finalized the country star's divorce from the former politico Friday, putting an end to 10 months of lurid allegations, tearful denials and other split-fueled warfare.

According to documents filed in Williamson County Chancery Court, Evans will fork over $600,000 in alimony, with the option of making annual payments of $60,000 over 10 years, and Schelske will hang on to their two homes in Oregon. The "Suds in the Bucket" songstress gets to keep the family's Nashville residence, where she and her ex used to live with their three young children.

Also embedded in the deal is an agreement that the estranged pair will put the past behind them and drop their pending accusations against each other, including Schelske's request filed earlier this month to make Evans cop to at least 11 extramarital affairs, including one with her Dancing with the Stars partner Tony Dovolani.

"The parties have agreed that it is in their best interests and those of their children to amicably resolve all issues in their pending divorce. Each wishes the other well in all future endeavors," the papers state. "Both parties are fully committed to raising their children in a cooperative and positive way. Both parties are loving and caring parents."

Evans, who filed for divorce on Oct. 12 after 13 years of marriage, was previously awarded primary custody of son Avery, 8, and daughters Olivia, 4, and Audrey, 2, with Schelske getting visitation rights.

The pair met with a custody mediator Friday to work out another arrangement, but those proceedings remained confidential.

When Evans first petitioned to end her marriage, her filing included accusations that her hubby had verbally abused her, solicited sex online, looked at porn while their kids were in the house and had committed adultery with the family's married nanny. (That last charge was later excised from the complaint after the alleged other woman, Alison Clinton, vehemently denied it.)

Schelske fired back, suing Evans' attorney for libel and saying that it was his wife who was the unstable and really, really unfaithful one. The Born to Fly artist filed for divorce the day he found out she was having an affair, he claimed.

A transcript was filed earlier this week of a recent court hearing during which Evans told Williamson County Chancery Court Judge R.E. Lee Davies (who signed off on the divorce) that Schelske was trying to ruin her career. An email from Schelske to Evans dated Aug. 20 that was introduced at that hearing and included in the filing read:

"Is it your desire to return to all out war? If it is rest assured that I am more than willing to continue. If it is then it means that the interrogatories will become public record, your affairs will become public, your mental illness will become public, etc."

But, per Friday's outcome, Evans and Schelske have agreed to let bygones be bygones.

The former spouses' attorneys stated in the court filing that their clients will have "no further comment regarding any allegations of fault or misconduct alleged by either party in these divorce proceedings."

For the record, Evans obtained her divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.