Stephen Hawking reportedly to divorce; Is he a battered husband?

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () bsf-llc com>]

Yikes.  Talk about a sad story.

Richard

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/10/20/report_stephen_h
awking_to_divorce?mode=PF

Stephen Hawking reportedly to divorce
October 20, 2006

LONDON --Renowned astrophysicist and best-selling author Stephen Hawking is
getting a divorce, according to media reports Friday. British newspapers
reported he and his wife, Elaine, have lodged divorce papers at Cambridge
County Court.

Graham Jones, the office manager at the court, said he could not comment on
family cases.

Hawking's university spokeswoman, Judith Croasdell, declined to comment on
the reports.

Hawking has been married to his wife, Elaine, 55, for 11 years. Hawking
divorced in 1991 from his first wife, Jane, with whom he has three children.

==========================================

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=
411781&in_page_id=1770

It is a sentiment shared by almost all Prof Hawking's friends and family;
relief that he is now finally free of Elaine, and distress that it has taken
so long; the couple have been together for 17 years. 

It is a relationship that, almost from the beginning, has provoked a storm
of controversy - and suspicion - the wheelchair-bound Prof Hawking, 64, who
has suffered from motor neurone disease since the age of 22, and the
"controlling, manipulative and bullying" (the words of another former
employee) Elaine. 

Because for years there have been shocking rumours of violence and abuse
against the vulnerable scientist - mental as well as physical - supported by
his own children no less. 

There is unlikely to be any reference to these allegations in divorce papers
lodged by both parties at Cambridge County Court, however. 

Prof Hawking has publicly denied such claims in the past. For a fiercely
proud man who, though feted as possibly the world's most famous living
scientist, must rely on others to help him perform basic human functions, it
surely would have been the final indignity: to be forced to deny that he is
a battered husband. 


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