Skip to Content
Call to Schedule a Free Consultation* 905-581-7222
Top
|

According to TMZ.com, country singer K.D. Lang's domestic partnership to Jamie Price has officially been dissolved. The two met back in 2003 through a Buddhist teacher and registered for a domestic partnership in 2009. The couple have given no reason for the split.

Although K.D. was originally from Canada, she moved to and lived with her partner in Los Angeles where they registered for a domestic partnership in 2009. Domestic partnership in California is almost equivalent to a marriage.

As stated in the California Family Code Section 297.5 it provides the couples with "the same rights, protections, and benefits, and... the same responsibilities, obligations, and duties under the law..." as married spouses. These benefits include property rights, spousal support, and the ability to make health care decisions for each other. The only difference a domestic partnership has from a marriage in California is that the federal law in the United States does not recognize a domestic partnership.

If the couple lived in Ontario, they would have been able to legally marry and this marriage would have been recognized federally, throughout Canada. Same-sex marriages in Ontario have been legal since 2001. However, same-sex marriages were not registered until after June 10, 2003 when the Ontario Court of Appeal declared that defining marriage in heterosexual-only terms violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In September of 2004, the Ontario Court of Appeal declared the Divorce Act also unconstitutional for excluding same-sex marriage. It ordered same-sex marriages read into the act, permitting same-sex couples to divorce.

Lang and Price apparently worked out a settlement agreement where both have waived rights to partner support. The couple have also agreed to a clean division of property. The singer will be taking what's hers including all of her bank accounts, cars, and houses, and her partner will be taking back what belongs to her.

No support, and a clean division of property? Hallelujah for Lang!