Weinstein's wife: 'I have chosen to leave my husband'

As the number and seriousness of the accusations piled up against Harvey Weinstein, his wife Georgina Chapman announced Tuesday that she was leaving him. From People magazine:

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Harvey Weinstein’s wife, Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, is leaving him — as more women continue to step forward to accuse the movie mogul of decades of sexual harassment and assault.

Weinstein, 65, and Chapman, 41, married in 2007 and have two children together, ages 7 and 4. Weinstein also has three children from a previous marriage.

“My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions. I have chosen to leave my husband. Caring for my young children is my first priority and I ask the media for privacy at this time,” Chapman says in a statement to PEOPLE.

In a follow-up story published this morning, People quotes a source who says Chapman also has to think about her company’s future:

London-born Chapman, 41, is not just considering her two young children, but the brand, Marchesa, that she built. (The first story of the harassment was released on the same day of Marchesa’s fall 2018 bridal show.)

“People who work at Marchesa know that if she didn’t leave him Marchesa would be done, what stars would wear the dresses if there was any connection to Harvey?” a fashion insider shares with PEOPLE.

“She was totally in love with him when they met and the relationship was very authentic,” the insider continues. “But I’m sure it played in her mind heavily that she had to save the label. Fashion is a tough business and Marchesa has never been rolling in money.”

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In response to the announcement of the separation, Weinstein tells TMZ he supports Chapman’s decision, “We discussed the possibility of a separation and I encouraged her to do what was in her heart.” He adds, “Hopefully, when I am better, I will be in their lives again.”

Honestly, my first reaction to all of this was pretty snarky. The idea that your brand is a factor in the future of your marriage is a special kind of Hollywood problem. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense for a couple reasons. First, Chapman realizes it’s not just her and her children’s futures that are at stake it really is all the people she employs. Does she want to throw them under the bus for a man who humiliated her?

Second, if the business does flop, does she have an income to support her young children? I guess that partly depends on whether or not she signed a prenup in 2007. But even if she’s entitled to some of Weinstein’s millions, what happens if he gets sued into oblivion? Does his wealth evaporate? In short, Chapman has to start thinking of her own future and that of her kids, which means thinking about where her income is going to come from for the next 20 years. This is actually the time to be thinking about her business’ future.

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Last Thursday after the NY Times story broke, Weinstein gave his first interview to the NY Post in which he announced plans to sue the Times and to eventually reach out to Ashley Judd. In that interview Weinstein said of his wife, “She stands 100 percent behind me.” He added, “Georgina and I have talked about this at length. We went out with Lisa Bloom last night when we knew the article was coming out. Georgina will be with Lisa and others kicking my ass to be a better human being and to apologize to people for my bad behavior, to say I’m sorry, and to absolutely mean it.”

Maybe that was true at the time but a lot of new accusations have appeared since then. And while I still have a hard time believing the people on Weinstein’s board and actresses like Meryl Streep heard nothing about his behavior, it seems more plausible that those whispers would not have been shared with Chapman, for obvious reasons.

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