Before this, Jamie and Frank had also started to butt heads over planning their estate. By 2008, the value of the Dodgers had appreciated tremendously—though they were still carrying a ton of debt—and Frank wanted to put money into a trust to pass the value on to their sons. The McCourts loved the idea that the Dodgers could become a family dynasty. But Jamie objected, arguing that she and Frank needed to be on better financial footing; after all, the seven properties they had bought when they came to L.A. might be worth half as much after the housing market went bust.

Jamie went to see the couple’s estate lawyer, Leah Bishop, about this issue, but claims she found herself in for a surprise—Frank was fully in control of all the Dodgers’ money. Bishop told her that she had signed away her rights to the team and its funds by agreeing to the post-nup. Bishop and Jamie now claim that Frank also expressed surprise at this situation, saying that he had never intended to cut Jamie off. (Frank’s side says he was expressing shock merely because the post-nup hadn’t been superseded by a will and that he always intended to be the sole owner of the Dodgers.)

It was tentatively agreed that Bishop would draft new documents in which all property would be equally shared. “Frank’s big mistake, which is a mistake he’s made throughout his life, was not saying no right then and there to Leah Bishop,” if he had misgivings about changing the post-nup, says a source close to Frank. “Instead, he said, ‘I’ll think about it.’ ” Jamie was very upset—if the Dodgers were solely Frank’s, her net worth would be about 15 percent of his, and that wasn’t any kind of equal marriage. “What happened there was pretty lousy,” says someone close to Jamie, giving her side of the story. “She’s the mother of four kids, been with her husband for 40 years, and then she realizes this person who was supposed to be her best friend was, well, screwing her, in so many words. It was a real heartbreak. Finally, it became clear to Jamie that Frank wanted her to always be there like, I don’t want to say a slave necessarily, but to just be along for the ride.”

Nevertheless, Frank wasn’t sure what to do. “I love my wife,” he reportedly said in court. “It’s as simple as that. She was trying very hard to convince me to sign the documents. She had basically put the marriage on the line.” Jamie was sending him lovey-dovey messages: “We have been enormously fortunate with our love, our health, our children, and our success together,” she wrote to him via e-mail. “I would really like to get this annoying estate work behind us What about this am I missing, because it really makes me feel that you don’t care about me? If we come through this troubling time in our lives, we should think about renewing our vows.”

After Frank became convinced that he was a man scorned, in October 2009, he must have wondered if Jamie had become so obsessed with estate planning because she was scheming to abscond with her new lover. Frank said he had “confirmation” of the affair and cut off discussions about changing the post-nup. Not only that—he decided that he wanted Jamie out of the Dodgers’ business entirely, along with Steinberg and about 70 staffers he perceived to be loyal to her, according to a source. “We had all gotten apartments and car loans, and moved 3,000 miles across the country, and then we were let go,” says Katy Phillips, a producer in the team’s media lab and one of the ex-employees with whom Frank does not have a non-disclosure agreement. On October 21, 2009, Frank sent Jamie a letter charging her with “insubordination, non-responsiveness, failure to follow procedures, and inappropriate behavior with regard to a direct subordinate.” She was fired as C.E.O. of the Dodgers, effective immediately.