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Mary Anne Shula, wife of Hall of Fame Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula, is still raking in a fortune from her previous husband. But she’s not satisfied.
In 1991, when the woman born Mary Anne Hurst divorced Little Rock investment bank tycoon Jackson T. “Jack” Stephens Sr. — her third hubby — he gave her a 13,300-square-foot, $4.14 million mansion on exclusive Indian Creek Island plus $1 million a year in alimony for the rest of her life.
In 2005, the old banking magnate went to the great country club in the sky. Sixty-four-year-old Mary Anne has been battling Jack’s billionaire son Warren Stephens in court ever since.
But her former stepson hasn’t missed a payment. No, the dispute stems from Warren dipping into Dad’s estate, making Mary Anne nervous there will be nothing left for her. “Just because there has been no default,” Shula’s lawyers wrote in a recent court filing, “does not mean there will never be such a default.”
Last week, an Arkansas probate judge tossed the strange claim. In 2008, another similar suit Mary Anne filed was dismissed from federal court, and she was ordered to fork over $160,000 in lawyer fees.
Miami’s first football couple is apparently hard up for cash. Last month, in an emotional protest of a new Indian Creek Village tax assessment that will cost the Shulas a few thousand dollars a year, Mary Anne lamented that 80-year-old Don is “on the back nine of his life [and] unable to do talks and signings like he used to. If our taxes go up, he’ll suffer.”
Shula’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment. And Riptide hasn’t heard a peep from Don, who we imagine is dozing in front of a classic NFL game rerun.
