VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty ImagesIt's not turning out to be the best week for Morgan Freeman. Though, on the bright side, he has a rock-solid excuse for issuing as many "no comments" as he sees fit.
Just four days after a scary vehicle-flipping, surgery-requiring crash comes news that the 71-year-old Oscar winner is engaged in a "divorce action" with his wife of 24 years, Myrna Colley-Lee.
Freeman's business partner and attorney Bill Luckett broke the news, telling the Memphis Commercial-Appeal newspaper there is a "divorce action pending," but refusing to give further details.
Luckett added that the actor and his wife, a costumer, has been separated for the better part of the past year.
"For legal and practical purposes, [Freeman and Colley-Lee] have been separated since December of 2007," he told Access Hollywood on Wednesday.
Freeman and Colley-Lee married in 1984. The actor was previously wed to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw from 1967 to 1979.
Late Sunday, Freeman was behind the wheel when his car flipped several times on a rural Mississippi highway, not far from where Freeman and Colley-Lee own a home. Rescuers required the jaws of life to pry Freeman and his female passenger, Demaris Meyer, from the vehicle.
The car was registered in Meyer's name, and while there's been no official word on the 48-year-old woman's condition, Luckett told the paper she and Freeman are "mutual friends" and that Meyer, a FedEx worker, is a big supporter of Freeman's Ground Zero blues clubs.
"She's got a lot of friends," Luckett said, going on to preemptively shoot down rumors of a romantic connection. "She brings groups. She's just a wonderful lady. There's no juice there. There ain't any juice."
The Dark Knight star underwent a four-and-a-half-hour operation Tuesday to reconnect nerves and repair damage to his left arm and hand and is currently recovering at Memphis' Regional Medical Center.
Luckett told the Commercial-Appeal that the actor's condition has already improved.
"He's better," Luckett said.