Jennifer Tilly has shocked fans after revealing the staggering settlement she received in her divorce from The Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon.
The 66-year-old actor, best known for her roles in the Child’s Play film series and as a professional poker player, recently joined Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for its 14th season.
During the latest episode, which aired on Tuesday (December 3), Tilly joined the rest of the cast on a trip to Mission Pacific Beach Resort in Oceanside, California. As the women spoke about divorce, Tilly — who packed her $33,000 Louis Vuitton Boat Bag for the getaway — opened up about her divorce from her ex-husband.
“My ex-husband was Sam Simon, who created The Simpsons,” she explained in a confessional interview. “I was married to him for seven years. We were together for about 10 years. And then when we got divorced, I got a piece of The Simpsons in the divorce settlement, and nobody knew that The Simpsons was gonna go on for trillions of years. So, every day, honestly every day, I’m like, ‘Thank you, Sam.’”
Tilly and Simon were married from 1984 to 1991. He co-developed the beloved animated series, which premiered on Fox in 1989 and has remained on the air ever since. Alongside Matt Groening and James L. Brooks, Simon served as executive producer and showrunner for The Simpsons’ first and second seasons, as well as creative supervisor for the first four seasons.
Simon departed the series in 1993, negotiating a deal that left him with $20 million to $30 million annually from the show’s licensing fees from T-shirts, posters, lunchboxes, and other merchandise, according to the Washington Post. At the time of his death in 2015, Simon reportedly donted his entire $100 million fortune to charity.
Despite their divorce, Tilly remained close with Simon until his passing from colon cancer at age 59. In court documents obtained by Radar Online, the actor has received 30 percent of royalties that Fox has given Simon’s estate in the last 34 seasons that The Simpsons has been on the air.
Apart from her jaw-dropping divorce settlement, Tilly has amassed a million-dollar fortune in her own right. The Canadian-American actor had small roles in several movies and TV shows throughout her early career, but her breakout role came from her brief but memorable appearance in 1989’s The Fabulous Baker Boys.
Five years later, Tilly later earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Olive Neal in Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway. The film grossed $13.4 million in the U.S. and Canada and $24.1 million internationally for a worldwide total of $37.5 million.
However, it was her portrayal of serial killer Tiffany Valentine in 1998’s Bride of Chucky, the fourth film in the Child’s Play horror franchise, that gained her the most recognition. She subsequently appeared in 2004’s Seed of Chucky, 2013’s Curse of Chucky, 2017’s Cult of Chucky, and the TV series Chucky, which was canceled in September this year after three seasons.
Since the first Child’s Play movie premiered in 1988, the horror franchise has generated over $250 million, series creator Don Mancini told USA Today in 2013. The first, second, and fourth Child’s Play films were also box office successes, with each installment earning over $182 million worldwide.
Apart from her acting career, Tilly has made a name for herself in the world of professional poker. She won her first World Series of Poker bracelet in June 2005, with a prize winning of $158,625. As of 2019, her total earnings from winning poker tournaments exceeded $1 million.
Since her divorce from Simon in 1991, Tilly has been in a relationship with her longtime partner and fellow professional poker player Phil Laak since 2004. The couple live in Los Angeles.
Her younger sister, Meg Tilly, is also an award-winning actor. She’s appeared in 1983’s Psycho II and The Big Chill, 1985’s Agnes of God, 1988’s Masquerade, and 1989’s Valmont.
New episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills air every Tuesday on Bravo at 8 p.m. ET.
