Todd Bridges announces divorce from Bettijo Hirschi after a three-year marriage
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Actor Todd Bridges and Bettijo B. Hirschi are headed separate ways after three years of marriage.
“After much prayer and reflection, my spouse and I have made the difficult decision to separate,” Bridges told The Times in a statement Thursday. “This was not an easy choice, and it comes with a heavy heart, but also with love and gratitude for the life we shared.”
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Bridges, 60, and Hirschi met in January 2022 and married nine months later, after a brief engagement. It was a second marriage for both. Hirschi told Tamron Hall last year that a friend who wrote a new dating profile for her showed it to Bridges as “market research.” The friend then told Hirschi that he wanted to get in touch.
“She’s a lot like my mom,” Bridges told Hall.
“I thank God for the time we’ve had together, the lessons we’ve learned, and the family we’ve built,” Bridges continued. “Even in this season of change, I trust He is guiding us both toward healing, peace, and new beginnings. I ask for privacy as we navigate this transition and continue to lift my former partner up in prayer, wishing them joy and fulfillment in the chapters ahead.”
The couple’s September 2022 wedding ceremony at Greystone Mansion & Gardens in Beverly Hills was attended by about 70 friends and family, according to People. Bridges was previously married to Dori Smith from 1998 to 2012.
The marriage brought together both spouses’ children from their previous marriages. Hirschi has four younger children with her first husband while Bridges has two adult offspring: daughter Bo is from a previous relationship with Amanda Rushing and he shares son Spencir, 27, with his first wife. Spencir Bridges was, like his dad, a child actor, with roles in the 2007 movie “Daddy Day Camp” and, in 2005, the TV series “ER.” His most recent acting credits were in 2009, when he had roles on the series “iCarly” and the TV movie “The Three Gifts.”
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Todd Bridges is the last surviving original cast member of the hit sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes,” which ran for eight seasons from 1978 to 1986. Conrad Bain played Phillip Drummond, the wealthy father of Kimberly (Dana Plato) who adopted sons Arnold (Gary Coleman) and Willis (Bridges). Housekeeper Edna Garrett, played by Charlotte Rae, spun off into the series “Facts of Life.”
Dana Plato, who played Bain’s daughter Kimberly, died in 1999 from an overdose when she was 34. Bain died of natural causes in January 2013, at age 89, while Rae died in August 2018 at 92.
Gary Coleman died in May 2010 at age 42 after suffering a brain hemorrhage in an accidental fall at his home in Utah.
TMZ first reported the divorce news Wednesday afternoon.
