Phil Collins and ex-wife reach ‘partial settlement’ in battle to remove her from his Miami mansion

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Phil Collins and his ex-wife have reached a ‘partial settlement’ in the bitter battle to remove her and her new husband from the singer’s Miami mansion, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

Collins, 69, insists former flame Orianne Cevey-Collins has no right to live in his palatial waterfront property with her new husband Thomas Bates, 31, and sued to have her kicked out.

But after the trio came face to face for the first time on Friday in mediation talks held via Zoom, Orianne and Bates have agreed to vacate the mansion by ‘mid-January’ so Collins can put in on the market and sell it, according to the singer’s lawyer, Jeff Fisher. 

He revealed that the legal wrangle over Orianne’s counterclaim for $20m – around half the value of the house – had not been settled however, and will head towards a trial. 

‘Mr. and Mrs. Bates’ plan to hold Phil Collins’ house as hostage to leverage a settlement during a protracted court case was upended by the new judge’s bold decision to complete the injunction hearing next week,’ Fisher said in a statement.

‘With the delay tactic failing, they agreed to vacate by mid-January and to allow Phil’s realtor to market and sell the property between now and the date they leave. ‘Further, Phil Collins’ priceless collection of music memorabilia and artifacts from the Alamo will be retrieved within days.

‘Mrs. Bates’ lawsuit claiming a 50 percent interest in the house based upon an alleged oral agreement will continue, but we have no doubt that it too will come to a quick and conclusive end once the judge hears the true facts about what occurred.’ Orianne’s camp are yet to issue their own statement.  

A court case scheduled for Monday through Tuesday at Miami Dade Circuit Court has also been cancelled though our source did not rule out future legal moves should the agreement collapse.

Despite splitting from Collins and remarrying, jewelry designer Orianne, 46, claimed the mansion is just as much her home as his under a ‘verbal cohabitation agreement’ and wanted $20m to leave.

Collins, currently in London rehearsing for an upcoming Genesis reunion, sought an injunction that would have allowed him to send in cops to physically remove the couple.

However he softened his stance earlier this week and agreed instead to go into formal mediation.

Collins launched his drastic legal action earlier this month ago after calling it quits with Orianne for the second time. The pair married in 1999 and had two sons, Nicholas, 19, and Matthew, 15, before splitting seven years later. 

Despite agreeing to a record $47m divorce settlement they surprised the world in 2016 when they announced they were back together and living in the Miami home, which Collins purchased through an LLC. 

However the relationship ended, seemingly for good, when he discovered Orianne had ‘secretly’ married Bates in Las Vegas on August 2.  

According to court filings, the Against All Odds crooner left in a hurry for Switzerland and gave the couple until October 12 to pack their bags and move so he could put the plush property up for sale. 

When they failed to leave, Collins sued Orianne for unlawful detainer and forcible entry, accusing the pair of hiring armed guards, covering over security cameras and changing alarm codes to seize the house ‘by a show of force.’ 

The newlyweds hit back with their own filing, dismissing the allegations as ‘nothing more than a retaliation’ to the new marriage and a ‘shameful story’ that Collins had ‘fabricated’.

Orianne argues that she surrendered a $20m stake in her previous Miami home by getting a ‘quickie divorce’ from her previous husband, Charles Mejjati.

She picked out and jointly furnished the waterfront mansion, paid her share of the bills for five years and had an ‘oral co-habitation agreement’ with Collins that entitled her and their two sons to be there, according to her filing.

Orianne also claims to have informed Collins about her marriage to Bates after making multiple attempts to talk about their ‘deteriorating relationship’ which she maintains he was unwilling to address.

The mother-of-three admits covering over security cameras but alleges that this was because Collins had 20 secret devices installed around the $12,000 sq ft residence to spy on her, including in her bathroom and changing room. 

‘These cameras were installed without my knowledge or consent. I covered these cameras with Band-Aids in order to preserve my privacy and the privacy of my children in the Family Home,’ Orianne said in her filing. 

‘I was greatly disturbed and outraged that Mr Collins apparently requested that hidden cameras be installed in these rooms.’ 

Orianne insists that having to leave the house would be especially unfair on her youngest son – a nine-year-old referred to in court documents only as A.A. – with whom she shares custody with Miami-based Mejjati.

Because her counterclaim for an ‘equitable interest’ in the home would likely exceed the maximum of $30,000 that can be awarded in the county courts, a judge decided last week to move it- to circuit court. 

The development put Collins’ filling at the back of a long line of pending cases with court closures and pandemic restrictions expected to delay jury trials by a year or longer.

That left the British rock star – worth an estimated $300m – having to choose between paying his ex-wife off for the second time or facing off with her in a bitter, drawn-out court battle.