Revealed: Dean McDermott’s Secret Heartbreak — He Gave Up An Adopted Daughter To Marry Tori Spelling
May 14 2014, Published 6:53 a.m. ET
After Dean McDermott admitted to cheating on Tori Spelling, the former 90210 star has struggled to comprehend whether he’s willing to do the work to save their marriage. But RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that McDermott already made a heartbreaking sacrifice for his reality star wife: When he divorced his ex-wife, Mary Jo Eustace in 2006, McDermott agreed to give up parental rights to his newly adopted daughter, Lola, to be with Spelling.
The painful story is revealed for the first time in never-before-seen court documents obtained by Radar.
In a sworn declaration McDermott made as part of his divorce proceedings with Eustace, he admitted that that "the birth and pending adoption of Lola in July 2004 was incredible, not only because she is a beautiful healthy girl, but I believed this was something that would finally make Mary Jo happy after several miscarriages, fertility drugs and a failed adoption in Canada. I fell instantly in love with Lola...”
But his baby joy was short-lived. McDermott reveals in the declaration that he and Eustace “agreed that I would relinquish my legal rights to Lola, however, based on the fact Mary Jo was concerned our separation would jeopardize the adoption."
Eustace’s declaration offers still more details of their secret struggle to start a family, as she admits that after giving birth to their son, Jack, she went on to have several miscarriages, and underwent fertility treatments unsuccessfully.
"On July 7, 2005, Lola Elizabeth McDermott was born,” she says in the documents. “This was an incredible experience. We received Lola when she was one hour old. Jack held her first. He had tears in his eyes. I spent the next day, July 8, with the birth mother. We bonded incredible and shared life stories. Jack is incredibly bonded with Lola.”
But just over a month later, on August 29, 2005, during a pre-planned family trip to Palm Springs, "Dean McDermott told me he was in love with Tori Spelling,” Eustace says in the documents, “that she was his soulmate, that she loved him unconditionally, and that they had sat down and made a plan. He then said, ‘We will take care of the kids, and money will not be an issue.’”
“I was crying uncontrollably,” Eustace remembers, “and asked Dean McDermott if he was going to divorce me and marry Tori Spelling. Petitioner responded, 'Yes.'"
After that, she notes, McDermott “signed a release which has been provided to the adoption attorney pursuant to which he has waived all parental rights to Lola.”
This is just the latest bombshell from the secret divorce documents obtained by Radar. As previously reported, Eustace, also accused him of cocaine use, out-of-control spending, anger issues and even brutally beating his own dog in an explosive court filing.
In Eustace’s sworn 2005 declaration, she said, “In March 1999, I went to my parents’ for a family gathering with Jack her son with McDermott, who was an infant at the time.”
She claimed McDermott “missed the gathering because he didn’t feel well. During the course of the event, Dean McDermott walked into the living room, threw a bag of cocaine on the table and said, ‘I have a cocaine problem .’”
Eustace admitted to ignoring “the red flags” in her relationship with McDermott. At the “end of our first date,” she said in the documents, “I noted his awful temper. We had a lunch date, and afterwards went to his house in Toronto to feed his dog. The dog had gotten into the garbage. Dean McDermott repeatedly and violently beat the dog with his fists and with a rolled up magazine. Dean McDermott was furious and it was very intimidating incident for me to witness.”
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McDermott, 47, pays Eustace $5k for spousal support and $3k in child support.
The divorce between Eustace and McDermott was granted on March 13, 2006, after 12 years of marriage. He wed Spelling, now 40, only weeks later on May 7, 2006. Eustace and McDermott share joint custody of their son, Jack.
