Kwame Kilpatrick reveals divorce on Facebook: 'I lost my marriage'

Tresa Baldas , Gina Kaufman | Detroit Free Press

After years of ups and downs, raising children together and struggling through a series of political and personal disasters, Kwame and Carlita Kilpatrick have split up, according to Oklahoma court records and the ex-mayor's official Facebook page.

In an emotional post that referenced his affair with his ex-chief of staff Christine Beatty, Kilpatrick wrote that his marriage fell apart in 2008 when text messages revealed that he had cheated on his wife, and officially ended sometime this year.

"Honestly, I los(t) my marriage on January 24, 2008. Certainly it languish(ed) and limp(ed) along for 10-years before the divorce was final ... but the marriage was over that day," Kilpatrick wrote in his post on the page, called The Freedom and Justice Trust.

Jan. 24, 2008, is the day the Free Press published text messages that showed Kilpatrick lied during a police whistleblower trial when he testified that he did not have an affair with Beatty and also gave misleading testimony about the firing of a deputy police chief.

The Free Press report triggered criminal charges that ended his political career and put him behind bars.

According to court records filed in Canadian County, Oklahoma, Kwame Kilpatrick filed for divorce on Feb. 12, alleging that "a state of complete and irreconcilable incompatibility has arisen between the parties which has completely destroyed the legitimate aims of the marriage ... and rendered its continuation impossible."

The divorce was finalized on July 23 on "grounds of incompatibilty from the other."

According to court records, the Kilpatricks had been separated since January 2015. They have since divided their assets "to their mutual satisfaction." Carlita Kilpatrick currently lives in Maryland with one of their minor sons. Kwame Kilpatrick is serving a 28-year prison sentence for federal corruption crimes in New Jersey, though he was previously incarcerated in Oklahoma, which is why he filed for divorce there.

Kilpatrick has said little about his personal life over the years, though he opened up more about his affair and his personal missteps on his Facebook post. He never mentions Carlita by name, but talks about how "sin," the media and his own actions robbed him of everything.

"The great fire started when I broke and forsook my marriage vows. The sin in my life gave wide open spaces within my marriage, my friendships, and my most treasured relationships for evil to creep in. Satan sifted me, us, like wheat," the post reads.

"Some of the damage and destruction that I ultimately caused could not be restored or repaired. Some of the things that were shaken ... were irreparably destroyed. My marriage was one of them."

Kilpatrick then references the text message scandal.

"On January 24, 2008, the revelation of an extra-marital affair, through public release of my personal text messages, was plastered across newspapers. ... The 'secrets' about the relationship with my friend and Chief of Staff; Christine Beatty, was no longer hidden. The specific words describing the torrid, passionate, and intimate moments of that relationship was in the public sphere for all to see."

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Then he took aim at the government and media.

"This was the space that many hateful forces used to employ strategies of unprecedented government intrusions, selective and malicious prosecutions against me, that would last for the next 10 years. These targeted campaigns of evil would cause great brokenness and defeat, separation and distance, sadness and depression, anger and bitterness, even bondage and incarceration."

The post continues: "Even though I tried with all that I was able to give from my wounded, confused, and severely deformed soul ... nothing would repair the breach of trust in my marriage. In the midst of being constantly attacked, assaulted, and also maliciously pursued by my own government (and broad-based media), I struggled to be restored and re-established in the Godly positions of husband and father. I was trying with everything I had ... I didn't have enough."

Kilpatrick then talks about his children, and the effects of his highly publicized affair on them.

"My sons experienced things that I never had to endure as a child or young man. They were confused, angry, scared, and ultimately the greatest victims in this whole mess. The tears that flowed (during those times) from all of us would later reap great joy, thankfulness, and love. But at that time, it was profoundly depressing."

Meanwhile, Kilpatrick says he's a stronger man now.

"Through days of incarceration, solitary confinement, and abject depression ... I discovered that I was not as strong as I thought, not as smart as I believed, and not as brave as I espoused. My cowardess, passivity, and complete disregard for truth, led me to a place of brokenness and pain that I did not know I could experience."

Since being in prison, Kilpatrick writes that while he lost his job and many relationships, he's "thankful for some things that burned up in the fire as well; my foolish pride, arrogance, ignorance, and inclinations to try to please 'people.'

"There was a great shaking in my life ... and the lives of those that love me as well. But we all have discovered through the shaking, that many things remain ... Today I am giving a victory report; I AM STILL HERE! ... I am not the same. Everything has changed. And as I stand here today, I know one thing; the long night of despair is over ... its Morning Time!"

Kilpatrick, meanwhile, has quite a lot of bills to pay when he gets out of prison, including:

A $7.4-million judgment issued to a minority contractor who sued Kilpatrick over a water contract he lost to Kilpatrick’s pal Bobby Ferguson.

$852,000 in restitution to the City of Detroit stemming from the text message scandal.

$1.5 million in restitution to the Detroit water department stemming from his 2013 federal conviction

$195,000 to the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid taxes.

Kilpatrick won't be eligible for release until 2037. He will be 67.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com Follow her on Twitter @Tbaldas

Divorce petition

Divorce dissolution