Ed Asner Files For Divorce At 85, Eight Years After Separating From Wife

Ed Asner has filed for divorce, and people are wondering why the 85-year-old is going through the process of a divorce at his age, according to TMZ.

Asner is a film, television, and stage actor, and a former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He became famous as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He played the same part of Lou Grant in the spin-off series, Lou Grant. Asner is only one of few television actors cast in the same leading role in both a comedy and a drama. Asner won an Emmy Award for both series.

Asner married Cindy Gilmore on August 2, 1998. Ed and Cindy separated in 2007. Cindy is the one who filed for the legal separation, citing irreconcilable differences. It was reported that the separation was a bitter one.

Back in 2008, a year after the couple’s separation, People magazine reported that Ed had threatened to cut off Cindy’s alimony payments, alleging that she wasn’t making enough of an effort to be self-supporting.

According to court papers, Ed and Cindy reached a financial settlement in 2009, but years passed and neither one of them filed for a legal divorce. Now, eight years later, Ed wants to take the next step to bring an official closure to the marriage.

Before marrying Cindy, Ed had been married to Nancy Sykes from 1959 to 1988. They had three children, including twins Matthew and Liza, and Kate. In 1987, while still married to Nancy, Ed had a son named Charles with Carol Jean Vogelman. Ed and Cindy had no children together.

It is interesting that Ed and Cindy were engaged from 1991, but they didn’t marry until 1998. One would say that was a long engagement. They separated nine years later, and now Ed is filing for a divorce eight years after the separation. It appears that there are a lot of years between one step of his and Cindy’s relationship to the next one.

“People are wondering why is Ed Asner is divorcing at this stage in his life, but apparently Asner has his reasons.”

Even though Asner is 85, he is still going strong in entertainment as an actor, political activist, and animal rights activist. Recently, he was a guest star on the popular show Criminal Minds.

Asner is a parent and a grandparent of a child with autism and is involved with the autism nonprofit Autism Speaks. He also serves on the advisory board of a suburban Chicago firm that employs persons with autistic spectrum disorders to test and program software.

[Image via Photo by Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images]