Tricia Helfer, who has led Hallmark titles such as “Sun, Sand and Romance” and “Operation Christmas,” was married to her ex-husband, Jonathan Marshall, for 13 years. Prior to their split, not much was known about their union other than that Helfer decided to pull the plug on their marriage in 2018. According to The Blast (via People), she listed “irreconcilable differences” within her divorce filings. She also went the typical celebrity route of attempting to block either spouse from having to pay court-ordered spousal support.
Although the couple’s divorce seemingly came out of nowhere, Helfer hinted at marital problems while speaking with Times Telegram when she referred to a “very tough personal situation in my marriage” around the same time. Ultimately, she decided to keep the true origin of their strife close to her chest. With that said, they had been having issues for nearly a year before, given that the date of separation was May 12, 2017.
Fortunately, the couple got quite lucky and managed to avoid an egregiously expensive divorce. According to The Blast, Helfer got her wish as she and Marshall forever waived “the right to seek or receive spousal support from the other.” Helfer also came out on top on the real estate side, scoring two homes and several luxury vehicles, including a Porsche McCann. With that said, Marshall, who was also afforded one of their properties and two cars, took the lion’s share of one bank account, amounting to over $1.2 million. Meanwhile, Helfer walked away with around one-tenth of that amount.
Tricia Helfer was miserable for half of her marriage
In a May 2024 appearance on her former “Battlestar Galactica” co-star Katee Sackhoff’s podcast, “The Sackhoff Show,” Tricia Helfer revealed that she, like other celebs, has regrets about her divorce. But hers are reversed from those who lament the one who got away. Turns out, she wasn’t content with her relationship for several years of her marriage. “I wish I’d done it earlier,” Helfer admitted about her divorce when discussing what she wished she’d done differently during the process. “I was unhappy in the marriage from kind of around year six, seven. And I knew it wasn’t working, but I was like, ‘You’re married, you gotta stay in it.’ And I wish I had done it earlier.” She also revealed that, though there were “good times here and there,” she “was miserable for the last seven years of the marriage.”
Regardless of how things ended between her and Jonathan Marshall, their first encounter, which took place when they attended the same birthday party for a mutual friend, was a much lovelier experience. “She said, ‘Jonathan’s here.’ And it was like the light bulb in little cartoons,” Helfer shared with the The Washington Post in 2014 about the moment a hostess helped their destinies align. “She grabbed me and marched me through the house into the back yard, plopped me in front of him, introduced us. And we talked the entire night. And a year later we were married.” Interestingly, Helfer recounted their meet-cute 11 years into their doomed union, confirming that things really weren’t all bad.
As Helfer revealed during her interview with Sackoff, Marshall has since moved on, while she appears to be single as of this writing.