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Navratilova, ex-wife Layton Settle Divorce Out of Court

06/22/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Toni Layton and Martina Navratilova have reached a settlement in the divorce battle which has raged for the last two years.  The two were never officially married, though they did have a ceremony in 2000 in New Hampshire.  They apparently made a verbal agreement to share all things together.  Layton and Navratilova began dating after Layton left her husband and family back in the early 1990′s after Navratilova broke up with her then partner of several years Judy Nelson.  The settlement between the two is estimated to be around $3 million.  The two spent the last two years fighting over “money, four homes, several cars, a boat, jewelry, a Florida animal sanctuary, art, pets and even a set of guns.”  The terms of the settlement have not been made public.

Raymond Rafool, Layton’s lawyer, stated “All of the disputes between the parties have been resolved. The terms of the settlement are confidential.”

Layton was appointed Navratilova’s grantor and trustee of Navratilova’s estate in 2002, but was removed from that position in 2008 with Navratilova claiming that Layton had abused her authority.  Navratilova then abruptly changed the locks on their Florida house.

Navratilova is originally from Czechoslovakia, but defected in 1975 when the Czechoslovakian Sports Federation instructed her to leave the United States and return to Czechoslovakia to focus on her studies and abandon tennis.  Instead, she defected.  She became a US citizen in 1981, and her Czech citizenship was stripped.  In 2008, the Czech Republic reversed that, and her citizenship was restored.

The lawsuit was filed in Sarasota, Florida.  The outcome of Layton and Navratilova’s breakup mirrors that of the breakup between Nelson and Navratilova in the 1990′s.