McCain heiress ends court battle
Had sought annulment of their marriage
It was a near two-year court battle between an heiress to one of the country’s largest fortunes and one of the most prominent executives in the Canadian culture industry, with allegations of everything from fraud and sexual harassment to shunning their stepchildren and conducting smear campaigns against each other. And it ended in a stalemate.
An Ontario judge has ordered a divorce between Eleanor McCain, daughter of a co-founder of the McCain Foods empire, and Jeff Melanson, the former head of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. McCain did not get the annulment she sought after claiming her estranged husband “tricked her” into marriage, and though Jeff Melanson did win an undisclosed settlement, it wasn’t the $5 million promised him in their prenuptial agreement.
“Nobody wins in a case like this where there’s so much conflict and media attention,” said Melanson’s lawyer, Harold Niman, who added that his client was “pleased” with the ruling reached on Dec. 14.
McCain and her lawyer would not comment on the settlement, but a spokesperson directed the National Post to a Nov. 23 Facebook post where McCain wrote what she was thankful for on American Thanksgiving.
“I’m thankful that today I closed a trying chapter of my life — even though taking the high road had a cost,” McCain wrote. “There comes a point when you realize precisely who matters and who never did, who won’t anymore and who always will.”
McCain, a singer and songwriter, filed for an annulment on March 2, 2016, to end her marriage to Melanson after nine months. Melanson resigned from the TSO after McCain accused him of having sexually harassed multiple employees at a past job with the Banff Centre in Alberta. Melanson, she said, ended the marriage in January 2016 “through a self-serving email.”
The arts mogul replied by filing for divorce in documents where he accused his estranged wife of being an “angry person with extreme wealth and incredible amounts of rage.”
Even though it was obvious the two no longer wanted to be together, Niman said Melanson couldn’t agree to an annulment. If he did, he would’ve essentially agreed with the allegations McCain made.
“He couldn’t let those allegations stand,” Niman said. “That’s the way a lot of those unfortunate allegations were made — in the context of an annulment claim. Without that claim, it would’ve been a run-of-the-mill divorce.”
For nearly two years, each side continued to fling allegations at the other — each more vexing and acrimonious than the last — before a trial was even close to being scheduled.
First, McCain denied Melanson the $5 million in their prenup, saying it would “unjustly enrich” the man she described as a “media whore.” Then, Niman himself became a central figure of the case as McCain sought unsuccessfully to have him expelled from it.
Niman had previously been involved in three divorce cases involving the McCain family and had a history of success. In 2013, he won the largest spousal support award in Canadian history — $175,000 per month — while representing the exwife of Michael McCain, McCain’s brother. He also represented Greg David, McCain’s ex-husband, in their divorce.
Next, Melanson — himself a millionaire — argued he needed McCain to pay his legal bill because he was broke and would be robbed of justice. This was after he spent six months taking road trips across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, racking up $50,000 in credit card debt, court heard. In one year, he had spent more than $200,000 on retaining Niman and his legal team. At the time, Melanson was unemployed, he said, because media coverage of the case sullied his chances of landing a job.
McCain, who had a net worth of $365 million when she signed the marriage contract, was eventually forced to cover some of Melanson’s legal fees.
The case was set to head to trial in December when it was settled.
NOBODY WINS IN A CASE LIKE THIS WHERE THERE’S SO MUCH CONFLICT AND MEDIA ATTENTION.