LOS ANGELES — Brandon “Bam” Margera’s wife, Nicole Margera, has filed for legal separation earlier this week, reportedly after an incident involving his recent visitation with their 5-year-old son.
The document, filed on Valentine’s Day in Los Angeles Superior Court and reviewed by the L.A. Times, gives the date of their separation as Sept. 14, 2021. The two got married in 2013. Nicole is asking for physical and legal custody of son Phoenix while stating that Bam can have parental visitation as long as he and the 5-year-old stay in L.A. County.
Though it is not a divorce filing, the separation request asks to cut off any spousal support for Bam while it also requests the 43-year-old TV personality pay Nicole’s legal fees.
The filing finally came, TMZ reported exclusively, after Nicole witnessed Bam spending time with their son when she believed he was under the influence. She said her estranged husband, who said he was sober, was behaving inappropriately, the outlet reported.
Bam Margera, the former pro skateboarder who gained wider fame doing outrageous stunts with Steve-O on MTV’s “Jackass” and its subsequent movie incarnations, has been struggling with substance abuse problems for years, first trying but not succeeding in rehab in 2009 and again in 2015.
He left a full-year rehab program in Florida last May and planned on following that with two months of outpatient classes. However, he checked into a different rehab facility about a month later. Since then, he has escaped and reentered court-ordered rehab a number of times.
In January, after a bout with COVID-19 and pneumonia that had him hospitalized and on a ventilator and “basically ... pronounced dead” on Dec. 8, he joined former co-star Steve-O — real name Stephen Glover — on his comedy tour.
But two weeks ago, Steve-O wrote (and then deleted) a comment begging Margera to sober up for the sake of his son.
“Bam, last night you had your five year old son with you on stage at my show, and you were blessed with the chance to spend another day or two with him — then as soon as you left my show, you stayed up all night getting loaded...,” Steve-O wrote, as captured by Page Six.
“You say you want to have a relationship with your son,” he added, “but your actions guarantee the exact opposite will happen. I brought you on tour with me in hopes that I could get you to see what’s possible for you if you choose recovery.”
Steve-O’s comedy tour has since moved on to Australia and New Zealand, but not before he finished that comment by saying, “I wish you could know how much I’ve hated feeling braced for news of your death, but you’re making it clear that I have no other choice. You’re dying, brother, and it sucks that I can’t do anything to save you.”
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