For nearly 40 years, Roscoe Orman entertained children as the lovable Gordon on the popular Sesame Street program. The Bronx native has been ordered to continue making palimony payments to his ex-wife of 39 years over an unwritten promise, even though he’s since remarried.
As reported by the Star-Ledger, Orman’s ex-wife and the mother of their four children, Sharon Joiner-Orman, 61, split with her husband in March 2010; Orman, 71, remarried Kimberley LaMarque Orman in 2012. Faced with eviction from a Montclair, N.J. home they once lived in together, Joiner-Orman sued her ex-husband for palimony based upon a promise he made that he would care for her for the rest of her life.
Last month in New Jersey Superior Court, Judge Ned Rosenberg ordered Orman to continue paying support to his wife despite no written evidence or legally binding contract of the promise. Orman paid his ex-wife $3,600 per month after leaving the Montclair residence, and asked the she move into a smaller home. Orman also paid her legal feels last October as well, but cut off support once he remarried last December.
Orman’s attorney plans to file an appeal in the ruling, although it appears he simply wants to reduce the amount of support given and not entirely stop paying palimony. A hearing will take place in two weeks to determine what Orman will have to pay going forward.
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Photo: Monica Simoes
