Marriage
Holm married actress Joan Collins in November 1985. The marriage was annulled in December 1986.
According to Collins, the marriage quickly degenerated into a string of "interminable arguments... and hearty crockery-throwing rows." She said Holm was a bully with a ferocious temper and "the most combative person I've ever met."
The marriage was annulled in December 1986 and Holm was locked out of Collins's new house. Undaunted, he gave poolside interviews (in leopard-skin briefs) blaming Collins's identification with her Dynasty character. "Joan is consumed by Alexis, that's why she's doing this. She really loves me and I love her and we'll get back together, I know it." He contested a pre-nuptial agreement, limiting him to 20 per cent of Collins's $5 million earnings during their 13 months together. Collins hired flamboyant divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson and the proceedings became a media circus.
When Holm and his supporters picketed Collins' Beverly Hills house waving placards, he became a national punchline. David Letterman joked about Peter Holm's Top 10 Grievances Against Joan Collins, which included "No. 5. Wouldn't Support His Campaign for Presidency of 'Weaselly Gigolo Club'" and "No. 2. Somebody Finally Told Him What 'Parasite' Means."
At the trial, Mitchelson produced Holm's secret lover, an aspiring starlet called Romina Danielson, and grilled her so intensely she fainted on the stand, conveniently revealing her cleavage right by photographers.
Holm lost his case, collecting only $1 million as agreed in the pre-nup. A New York radio station hosted a fundraiser for him and he retreated to Switzerland. Directly after her final court appearance Collins famously declared "I don't need a husband, what I need is a wife!"
Collins gave her candid side of the break-up in Second Act, her second volume of memoirs, and subsequently referred to him only as "the Swede."
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Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“Every relationship that does not raise us up pulls us down, and vice versa; this is why men usually sink down somewhat when they take wives while women are usually somewhat raised up. Overly spiritual men require marriage every bit as much as they resist it as bitter medicine.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The reason why women effect so little and are so shallow is because their aims are low, marriage is the prize for which they strive; if foiled in that they rarely rise above disappointment ... [ellipsis in source]”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse”
—William Blake (1757–1827)