Charlie Chaplin Pays Heavily For Freedom

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 130, 23 August 1927, Page 1

Charlie Chaplin Pays Heavily For Freedom

Lit a Grey Granted Decree on Grounds of Abuse and Neglect RECEIVES £125,000 Received 10.40 a.m. LOS ANGELES, Monday. T ITA Grey Chaplin has been granted a divorce by the Supreme Court at Los Angeles. Judge Walter Eucrin heard testimony that Charles had neglected and abused her. A settlement -was reached

out of. < w’hich gave Mrs. Chaplin 625,000 dollars and the custody of the two children. The case came to a sudden ending. Mrs. Chaplin’s attorneys told the court that a settlement as to

property had been reached out of court, after which, within an hour, an interlocutory decree of divorce was granted the wife (following a few legal preliminaries) on the ground of cruelty. The decree will not become permanet for a year. Mrs. Chaplin will receive, in addition to the 625,000 dollars, a trust fund of 200,000 dollars for the two children, from which she will derive income for their support and education. The principal of the trust fund goes to the children when the younger of them reaches the age of 35. Chaplin was granted access to the children at will.—A. and N.Z. Charles Spencer Chaplin, the film star, was born in Whitechapel, London, in April, 1889, of Jewish parents. His childhood was a hard one. After a boardschool education he joined his parents, who were music-hall artists, on the stage. In 1913 he obtained his first engagement to appear in a film at Los Angeles. Now he is the most popular humorous film actor in the world. He lives in a wonderful house at Beverley Hills, and is said to have an income of over £IOO,OOO a year. His marriage to Lita Grey, a six-teen-year-old dancer in 1924, was his third matrimonial venture.