Laurent Gbagbo is seeking a divorce. According to a statement signed by one of his lawyers, the former Ivorian president has referred the matter to a matrimonial judge on Monday, June 21, 2021. According to him, this is a consequence of “the repeated refusal for years of Dame Simone Ehivet to consent to an amicable separation. Laurent and Simone Gbagbo were married in 1989. She participated in the founding of the FPI.
Laurent Gbagbo is officially seeking a divorce. In a terse statement, one of his lawyers announced that the former president has filed a request for divorce with a judge after his wife Simone Ehivet Gbagbo refused to allow an amicable separation.
Claude Menneton, one of Laurent Gbagbo’s lawyers, says in this two-sentence press release that he has filed a request for divorce with a matrimonial judge. According to the text, the cause is “the repeated refusal of Dame Simone Ehivet to agree to an amicable separation, which is an appropriate way to settle their personal and political status.
This statement confirms what has been whispered about for months and that images captured by cell phones as Laurent Gbagbo left his plane on Thursday, June 17, have come to light. The former president is seen dismissing his wife with an unwelcoming wave of the hand.
Laurent Gbagbo married Simone Ehivet in 1989. Seven years earlier, this early activist was one of the founders of the Ivorian People’s Front in hiding. From 2000, when Laurent Gbagbo became President, Simone Gbagbo was a very political first lady, a woman of power and influence, which earned her the nickname “Iron Lady”.
It was also at this time that Laurent Gbagbo married Nady Bamba according to customary rites. Laurent Gbagbo returned to Côte d’Ivoire last Thursday on her arm.
On Sunday, St. Paul’s Cathedral in Abidjan welcomed a prominent member of the faithful. Laurent Gbagbo was symbolically making his return to the Catholic community, thus breaking with evangelicalism, which he had embraced with his wife Simone in the 1990s.
While the latter never abandons her evangelical discourse, this gesture by Laurent Gbagbo had a clear political significance. “He is separating himself from Simone and the evangelical clan. It could have waited a few weeks, but he chose to take this step on his third day in Côte d’Ivoire,” said political scientist Sylvain N’Guessan.
The referral to a judge on Monday leaves no room for doubt. The divorce of Laurent and Simone Gbagbo, 2nd Vice President of the FPI GOR, is also consummated on the political level.