Actor Ben Foster and his ex-wife, Laura Prepon, appear to be engaged in a bitter divorce, with both sides airing their dirty laundry in recent court hearings.
On December 13, 2024, Prepon accused her estranged husband of struggling with alcohol and being absent from their two children’s lives. However, Foster quickly denied the allegations through his legal team.
In court documents exclusively obtained by In Touch Weekly, Ben’s attorney, Rose Palermo, responded by claiming that Laura was using their children to create a false narrative against the actor. The filing read:
“[Laura] has refused to allow [Ben] to have any meaningful parenting time with the children… [Laura] launched a punitive, unsupported attack on [Ben] by using the children as pawns to hurt him”.
Ben also denied having a longstanding drinking problem, as alleged by his former wife. The court documents stated:
“He vigorously denies [Laura’s] allegations, mischaracterizations, and narrative about his drinking. He has been a social drinker since adulthood but has never been accused of public intoxication or arrested for a DUI. He has never endangered the children due to drinking”.
Laura Prepon Presents Exclusive Witnesses To Support Her Claims In Court
Soon after the X Men: The Last Stand star denied Prepon’s allegations, her lawyer, Larry Hayes, responded on December 17, 2024, by presenting witness testimonies to support her claims.
One of the affidavits came from Laura Vogel, an employee of Prepon’s for over seven years. In her statement, Vogel revealed,
“[Laura] has always been the children’s full-time primary caretaker… Over the past seven years, Ben has shown through inaction and absence, that being a father is not Ben’s priority… When Ben did ‘pop in’ he would often be drinking alcohol… throughout the day and into the late evening”.
Another household employee of the former couple, Emily Neikman, who joined them in February 2024, said in her testimony,
“Ben’s time with the kids over the past 10 months has been sporadic. A more serious concern that I have about Ben’s ability to care for these children relates to his consumption of alcohol… I have frequently found whiskey in coffee cups that Ben leaves in the children’s rooms”.
After six years of marriage, Foster filed for divorce on November 12, 2024, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’ and noting that the couple had been separated since September 9, 2023.
Their divorce proceedings are still ongoing, with the court yet to issue a final ruling. Moreover, Ben and the That ’70s Show star have not yet reached a resolution regarding their child custody arrangements.
The future of Ben Foster and Laura Prepon’s divorce remains uncertain, with witness testimonies painting a complex picture of their already troubled marriage. It seems that the battle over custody and allegations is far from over.