Bijou Phillips files for divorce from Danny Masterson

LOS ANGELES — Bijou Phillips has filed for divorce from Danny Masterson, days after the former “That ’70s Show” star was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for two rape convictions.

Actor Phillips, 43, filed a petition in Santa Barbara Superior Court on Monday to end his nearly 12-year marriage to Masterson, 47, according to the court’s website. The couple has a 9-year-old daughter. No further details are currently available.

An attorney for Phillips did not respond to emails, and a representative for Masterson declined to comment. Masterson maintains his innocence, and his lawyers have said they plan to appeal, citing evidentiary problems and constitutional issues with his conviction.

Phillips appeared in court along with other members of the Masterson family throughout two lengthy hearings; the first of which resulted in a mistrial and the second in 2003, which resulted in a conviction on two of three rape charges.

She cried when the guilty verdicts were read in court on May 31, and showed similar emotions at the Sept. 7 sentencing hearing when she was sentenced to prison, which led the judge to sentence Masterson to 25 1/2 years in prison. before becoming eligible for parole.

In a letter to the judge before Masterson’s sentencing, Phillips praised him as a husband and father.

“I can say that Danny has literally been a life-saving partner to me,” Phillips wrote, an apparent reference to the care Masterson showed her and their daughter after Phillips received a kidney transplant in 2017.

The letter, which was heavily edited before being made public after the sentencing, said he and Masterson bought a farm in rural Santa Barbara County, which he turned into a vineyard, after the discovery of a police investigation led to the loss of all his acting work.

Phillips called him a “wonderful father” and said, “Our daughter and I are very saddened that he is not home with us.”

The daughter of “The Mamas and the Papas” singer-songwriter John Phillips and actor Genevieve Waite, Phillips was a model in her youth and released an album of her own songs before turning to acting. She has appeared in films such as “Almost Famous” and television shows such as “Raising Hopes” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

He started dating Masterson in 2004. They announced their engagement in 2009 and married in Ireland in 2011.

From 1998 to 2006, Masterson starred in Fox’s retro sitcom That ’70s Show, opposite Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace. Los Angeles police announced in 2017 that they were investigating him for sexual assault, and Masterson was arrested in 2020. Kutcher and Kunis apologized after their letters to the judge asking for leniency for Masterson were made public and sparked criticism.

In 2003, he was convicted of raping two women he knew through the Church of Scientology. Both testified that he put drugs in their drinks and violently raped them. Jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on a third charge, alleging he raped an ex-girlfriend in 2001.