{"id":3251,"date":"2026-10-05T05:29:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/?p=3251"},"modified":"2026-08-31T11:48:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:48:53","slug":"abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Abby Elliott and Bill Kennedy\u2019s Divorce Raises Questions About Spousal Maintenance Under Texas Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Bear actor Abby Elliott and her producer husband, Bill Kennedy, are <a href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/entertainment\/celebrity\/abby-elliott-file-divorce-husband-bill-kennedy\">divorcing<\/a> after nearly ten years of marriage. Both spouses are asking for spousal support while simultaneously asking the court to prevent the other from receiving it. Elliott requested support when she filed for divorce, and Kennedy later filed his own request for support while seeking to terminate the court\u2019s ability to award support to Elliott. Although their divorce is governed by California law, we can analyze how their case hypothetically could play out under Texas law.<\/p>\n<p>In Texas, a spouse\u2019s request for maintenance does not establish that the spouse is entitled to receive it. Here, a court may award post-divorce maintenance only when the spouse seeking it satisfies the requirements detailed in the Texas Family Code. <a href=\"https:\/\/statutes.capitol.texas.gov\/?tab=1&amp;code=FA&amp;chapter=FA.8&amp;artSec=8.051\">Tex. Fam. Code \u00a7 8.051<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>When Can a Spouse Receive Spousal Maintenance in Texas?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Abby Elliott and Bill Kennedy\u2019s Divorce Raises Questions About Spousal Maintenance Under Texas Law\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bear actor Abby Elliott and her producer husband, Bill Kennedy, are divorcing after nearly ten years of marriage. Both spouses are asking for spousal support while simultaneously asking the court to prevent the other from receiving it. Elliott requested support when she filed for divorce, and Kennedy later filed his own request for support [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spousal-support"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Abby Elliott and Bill Kennedy\u2019s Divorce Raises Questions About Spousal Maintenance Under Texas Law &#8212; Texas Divorce Attorney Blog &#8212; October 5, 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Bear actor Abby Elliott and her producer husband, Bill Kennedy, are divorcing after nearly ten years of marriage. Both spouses are asking for spousal &#8212; October 5, 2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Abby Elliott and Bill Kennedy\u2019s Divorce Raises Questions About Spousal Maintenance Under Texas Law &#8212; Texas Divorce Attorney Blog &#8212; October 5, 2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Bear actor Abby Elliott and her producer husband, Bill Kennedy, are divorcing after nearly ten years of marriage. Both spouses are asking for spousal &#8212; October 5, 2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kelly McClure\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Abby Elliott and Bill Kennedy\u2019s Divorce Raises Questions About Spousal Maintenance Under Texas Law &#8212; Texas Divorce Attorney Blog &#8212; October 5, 2026","description":"The Bear actor Abby Elliott and her producer husband, Bill Kennedy, are divorcing after nearly ten years of marriage. Both spouses are asking for spousal &#8212; October 5, 2026","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Abby Elliott and Bill Kennedy\u2019s Divorce Raises Questions About Spousal Maintenance Under Texas Law &#8212; Texas Divorce Attorney Blog &#8212; October 5, 2026","twitter_description":"The Bear actor Abby Elliott and her producer husband, Bill Kennedy, are divorcing after nearly ten years of marriage. Both spouses are asking for spousal &#8212; October 5, 2026","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kelly McClure","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law\/"},"author":{"name":"Kelly McClure","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d242451d01f4b8ae44c765b4296b15f1"},"headline":"Abby Elliott and Bill Kennedy\u2019s Divorce Raises Questions About Spousal Maintenance Under Texas Law","datePublished":"2026-10-05T10:29:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law\/"},"wordCount":642,"articleSection":["Spousal Support"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/abby-elliott-and-bill-kennedys-divorce-raises-questions-about-spousal-maintenance-under-texas-law\/","name":"Abby Elliott and Bill Kennedy\u2019s Divorce Raises Questions About Spousal Maintenance Under Texas Law &#8212; Texas Divorce Attorney Blog &#8212; October 5, 2026","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-10-05T10:29:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d242451d01f4b8ae44c765b4296b15f1"},"description":"The Bear actor Abby Elliott and her producer husband, Bill Kennedy, are divorcing after nearly ten years of marriage. 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