Twin Peaks director at war with ex whom he divorced “over $532,000 he spent on wooden DUCK decoys”

A wealthy Boston filmmaker who directed episodes of Twin Peaks fought with her husband during their second divorce over more than $532,000 she spent on wooden ducks.

Ernestine Rathborne, known as Tina, accused real estate mogul Philip Y. DeNormandie of leading her to believe their combined wealth was “only” $90 million, when the real figure was actually $220 million.

Rathborne, 72, and DeNormandie, 75, finalized their latest divorce on February 2, with a judge ordering the couple to split their vast fortune equally.

It includes a portfolio of 139 properties, many among the most sought after in Boston, with Rathborne giving up his $7 million Cambridge mansion that was also his childhood home.

Philip Y. DeNormandie, 75, amassed a massive real estate empire and a collection of decoy ducks

The battle over assets between the couple, who have two children, started off quite amicably.

But it turned ugly once Rathborne discovered assets that she claimed DeNormandie had been hiding from her, after seeing a $532,000 receipt for the ducks, the boston globe informed.

DeNormandie has hit back at his Harvard-educated debutante wife by calling her a highly capable woman, who was nonetheless so lazy that she hired staff to cater to her every whim. A footman was paid $80,000 a year just to walk his dogs and brush the animals’ teeth, she alleges.

Rathborne, who counts actress Isabella Rossellini among her friends, refutes claims that she is spendthrift.

She singled out a Globe reporter who was wearing an old brown coat the day the paper interviewed her, as evidence of her parsimony.

One of many decoy ducks in the extensive collection of Philip Y. DeNormandie

One of Philip Y. DeNormandie’s decoy ducks, which he began collecting at the age of 10.

The 50-year relationship, marred by a previous divorce, turned sour after the latest separation.

Rathborne was angered to discover that her husband had spent $532,964.50 on decoy ducks to add to his already expanding collection, but did not include them in his financial statements. DeNormandie is now the proud owner of more than $3 million worth of decoy ducks, and fell in love with the objects as a child.

The discovery of the duck led Rathborne to suspect that DeNormandie was not being honest about the extent of his family’s finances and property, and soon after the insults began.

DeNormandie called Rathborne lazy, disconnected, and spoiled, and accused her of forcing him to marry her by becoming pregnant. In turn, she said that she was afraid of his temper and her controlling nature.

Both denied the other’s accusations, but as the proceedings progressed, it was revealed that Rathborne’s hunch about his true wealth was correct.

DeNormandie’s $90 million estimate of her net worth was roughly $130 million short of a reality that included 139 properties, instead of the 18 Tina thought they owned, and a whopping $3 million worth of decoy ducks.

In the end, the couple split their estate down the middle, with Rathborne walking away with his $7.5 million Cambridge home and 100 Louisiana properties.

DeNormandie maintained property, including his private island, the Isle of Maine, along with his beloved collection of decoy ducks.

The couple met when they were both students at Harvard University in the 1970s and married in 1973, shortly after graduation.

“We loved doing the same things,” Rathborne told the Boston Globe. ‘We loved hiking and sailing. He is a boy of nature. I loved walking through the woods with him.

After buying a house in Harvard Square, Rathborne moved to New York and then Los Angeles to pursue a film career, and their relationship suffered until their first divorce in 1987.

“We were standing in front of the judge sobbing,” he told the Globe, recalling how the judge asked if they were sure they wanted to end things, and DeNormandie replied, “It’s geography, your honor.” It’s geography.

Rathborne went on to direct a couple of Twin Peaks episodes in 1990, before the couple reconciled when she became pregnant.

The couple’s $7.5 million Cambridge home, which Rathborne won in the divorce settlement. it is his childhood home

DeNormandie kept the couple’s private island in Maine, pictured

After having two children, Rathborne raised them as a homemaker, saying she had felt “fulfilled” in her career.

“I found the job I was born to do and I longed to have children,” she told the Globe. ‘I had the privilege of being a mother. I didn’t look back over my shoulder.

During those years, DeNormandie built an expanding real estate profile of more than 100 listings in New England and the South.

It includes the historic Blackstone Block in Boston, home to the Union Oyster House, and the luxurious Lewis Wharf real estate enclave on the waterfront of Boston Harbor.

When things got messy after her second divorce, DeNormandie looked back on those years very differently than Rathborne did.

‘I made all the money. She was an incredibly capable person who did nothing,” she said. He had help seven days a week all the time.

She told the Globe that she had a personal cook, a secretary, a housekeeper and spent at least $80,000 per year on a dog walker who brushed her pets’ teeth.

Rathborne said she began divorce proceedings in 2017 after years of estrangement, but after she began to suspect DeNormandie had been withholding information about her net worth, she said she was divorcing him out of fear of his aggression and controlling behavior. She recalled an incident in which he refused to let her use her bathroom during a four-hour car ride.

In response to DeNormandie’s accusations that she was a spendthrift, Rathborne sneered.

“I didn’t spend my time in Newbury Street,” he told the Globe, referring to the upscale shopping district. “I was deeply upset when I read that characterization of me.”

His lawyer, Robert O’Regan, also found his claims ridiculous.

“Here’s a man who would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on fine art and wildlife collectibles, and in some cases not unpack them from their shipping materials, and complain that Tina leads an extravagant lifestyle?” he told the Globe.

As for those ducks, DeNormandie said she started collecting them when she was 10 years old during a family vacation on Cape Cod.

“We’d go down the Cape in the summer and I’d ride my bike and go into antique shops,” he said. “The only thing I liked was duck decoys since I was about 10 years old. I built up quite a collection.”

The couple also owned the historic Blackstone Block in Boston, which includes the city’s famous Union Oyster house.

The couple owned the Lewis Wharf luxury real estate enclave on the Boston Harbor waterfront.

Sixty-five years later, those wooden ducks cost DeNormandie tens of millions after Rathborne was warned he was undervaluing his net worth.

After she discovered the purchase of the duck for half a million dollars and the divorce went wrong, the couple hired a special teacher, Anthony Doniger, to mediate the dispute. They both agreed to accept Dongier’s decision, but he said getting DeNormandie to provide the financial documents was like “pulling his teeth out.”

When the full net worth ($221 million) was finally revealed, DeNormandie said the ruling was “totally biased,” according to the Globe, while his lawyer insisted the property’s value had simply been appraised differently than principle.

“It hurt mainly because I had no idea,” she told the Globe, recalling that she was “astonished” to hear the full amount.

They both agreed to split their worth in half at $110,379,691 each, with DeNormandie agreeing to pay $600,000 in Rathborne’s legal fees for prolonging the divorce by not disclosing his full finances.

And while Rathborne left with his Cambridge home, he kept his $2.6 million home in Antigua.