By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
“DaVinci Code” author Dan Brown of Rye has settled the $150 million lawsuit that was filed by his ex-wife, Blythe Brown, over accusations he hid assets during the couple’s 2018 divorce, according to court records.
The couple filed a motion in Rockingham Superior Court on Monday to have the lawsuit dismissed. This motion comes two weeks after the couple signaled they were negotiating a settlement, according to court records. The details of the settlement are not public. An attempt to obtain comment from Brown wasn’t immediately successful.
Blythe Brown brought the lawsuit this year, demanding $150 million she said her husband owed her. Blythe Brown claimed her husband hid deals for books and movies, and assets like racing horses.
“Dan has lived a proverbial life of lies for at least the past six years, seeming to be the epitome of a world-famous novelist leading a simple life in his home state of New Hampshire, while in reality he was something quite different,” the original lawsuit states. “For years, Dan has secretly removed substantial funds from his and Blythe’s hard-earned marital assets to conduct sordid, extra-marital affairs with women—one half his age—and to pursue a clandestine life.”
The couple married in 1997, and Blythe Brown claimed she was instrumental in supporting her husband’s writing. She even did research for his best-selling break-out novel, “The Da Vinci Code.” The marriage ended in 2018, with that case being heard in the Portsmouth Family Court.
Blythe Brown’s lawsuit claimed Dan Brown hid a television project based on his Da Vinci Code characters, more deals for more books in the Da Vinci-verse, and a children’s book.
In addition to the book and T.V. deals, Dan Brown hid his purchase of two Frisian horses, named Da Vinci and LimiTed Edition, according to court records. Dan Brown had previously tried to claim he bought the horses for Blythe Brown, then he claimed they were for his girlfriend known as JP in the lawsuit. But Blythe Brown’s lawsuit stated the author always planned to keep the horses for himself.
“The documents show that Defendant continued to assert ownership over the horses and that he not only did not gift” them to JP, but that he affirmatively did not want JP to own them,” a recent motion to produce documents state.
In fact, Dan Brown states in an email seeking a receipt for the horses that he is the owner, and not JP or Blythe Brown, according to court records.
“Normally, the decision on a horse’s name is the sole right of the new owner, and I feel his naming is my decision alone as his owner,” Dan Brown wrote, according to the motion to produce documents.
British tabloids have identified JP as Dutch horse trainer Judith Pietersen, who posted photos of herself with the Browns and the horses in question to her social media. Pietersen reportedly lived with the Browns for a time at their New Hampshire home.