History Main / DivorceAssetsConflict

** One BodyOfTheWeek on ''Series/{{CSI}}'' died from this trope: he decided to take the fact that he got "half of everything" in the divorce literally and attempted to chainsaw his wife's favorite furniture. Unfortunately for him, he was a left-handed man using a right-handed chainsaw, and killed both himself and the neighbor who tried to stop him.
** Another ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode has both sides killed by this. The couple decided to [[LetHimChoose let the dog decide]] whether the man or woman would get him, but the wife (solely to upset her husband) cheated by smearing her hands with bacon grease. This culminated in a KarmicDeath when the husband tried to switch out his dog with another. She caught him in the act, became angry when he admitted to caring more about the dog than he cared about her, and shot him dead. Unfortunately, the replacement dog had suffered some sort of trauma in her past, became violent on hearing the gunshot, and mauled her to death.
** A ''Series/CSIMiami'' episode had a couple engaged in a highly publicized ''Film/TheWarOfTheRoses''-esque conflict become the suspects in not one murder, but two (the husband's mistress and the new owner of the husband's car, which the wife sold for a really cheap price out of spite). To show how messy it got, the episode was introduced with the wife taking a chainsaw to the husband's boat and him, after a couple of seconds of protesting, taking a shotgun to it because technically 50% of it still belongs to her. Although they had nothing to do with those murders, eventually they did momentarily set aside their differences to murder a [[AmoralAttorney divorce attorney]] who had been scamming them both. The CSI team busts them for the latter thanks to the help of their teenaged son; when asked why he decided to turn in his own parents, he replies that they fought tooth and nail over their material possessions...[[LonelyRichKid but not once over him.]]
** An episode of ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' featured a married couple that was planning to divorce being attacked and robbed in their home, with the husband being killed (by the wife after the fact). Interviews with the husband's business partner revealed that he was deliberately costing his business ridiculous amounts of money just so that his wife wouldn't get it. Oh, and the home invaders? Their daughter and her boyfriend, motivated by the fact that she would have lost her college fund and other finances in the war between her parents, who, like the Miami example above, didn't seem to be taking the impact on her into consideration.

** A ''Series/CSIMiami'' episode had a couple engaged in a highly publicized ''Film/TheWarOfTheRoses''-esque conflict become the suspects in not one murder, but two (the husband's mistress and the new owner of the husband's car, which the wife sold for a really cheap price out of spite). To show how messy it got, the episode was introduced with the wife taking a chainsaw to the husband's boat. Although they had nothing to do with those murders, eventually they did momentarily set aside their differences to murder a divorce attorney who had been scamming them both. The CSI team busts them for the latter thanks to the help of their teenaged son; when asked why he decided to turn in his own parents, he replies that they fought tooth and nail over their material possessions...[[LonelyRichKid but not once over him.]]

* An episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' contains a scene with two characters having an ''extremely'' acrimonious divorce, such that they just start smashing everything that has been designated as belonging to the other person.

** A ''Series/CSIMiami'' episode had a couple engaged in a highly publicized ''Film/TheWarOfTheRoses''-esque conflict become the suspects in not one murder, but two (the husband's mistress and the new owner of the husband's car, which the wife sold for a really cheap price out of spite). To show how messy it got, the episode was introduced with the wife taking a chainsaw to the husband's boat. Although they had nothing to do with those murders, eventually they did momentarily set aside their differences to murder a divorce attorney who had been scamming them both. The CSI team busts them for the latter thanks to the help of their teeneaged son; when asked why he decided to turn in his own parents, he replies that they fought tooth and nail over their material possessions...[[LonelyRichKid but not once over him.]]

* Subverted in ''Film/WeddingCrashers''. The protagonists start the film arbitrating between a couple very much interested in following this trope but manage to calm both parties.

Every time there's a celebrity divorce in media, the individuals involved never handle it in a sane, rational manner. They're always as petty, vindictive, and spiteful as possible, in a "Who Can Hurt The Other The Most?"-style contest--''especially'' if one of them is a GoldDigger. It's even worse when there are children in the picture, where even then, the custody battle might have more to do with hurting the ex than deciding what's best for the kids.

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