The high-profile split between music and media mogul David Geffen and his much younger ex-husband Donovan Michaels has taken a deeply scandalous turn, with a lawsuit that reads more like a Hollywood script than a legal filing.
On Tuesday, Michaels, a 32-year-old former model and go-go dancer whose real name is David Armstrong, filed a bombshell complaint against the 82-year-old billionaire in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Michaels alleges that Geffen exploited him over the years in a deeply controlling relationship filled with manipulation, paid sex, emotional coercion, and even drug abuse.
According to the 33-page complaint, the pair met in 2016 through the controversial website SeekingArrangements.com, a platform often used for sugar daddy relationships.
Michaels claims Geffen paid him $10,000 for sex the first night they met, and that this transactional arrangement gradually evolved into a romantic relationship—at least on the surface.
The complaint details how Michaels became Geffen’s so-called “trophy boy,” described in the filing as both a “private sexual object” and a “public prop” to impress the billionaire’s powerful circle.
In 2023, the couple tied the knot in a private ceremony, but the honeymoon was reportedly short-lived.
Michaels alleges that Geffen exerted excessive control over his life, forcing him to abandon his modeling career and independence in exchange for promises of lifelong partnership and financial support.
He also claims Geffen obsessively micromanaged his appearance, requiring him to undergo painful laser treatments, dental procedures, and stay completely hairless.
“Daddy likes his twink smooooth,” the lawsuit grotesquely alleges Geffen once said.
Michaels says he was pressured into drug use to keep up with Geffen’s party lifestyle and eventually had to enter a 12-step recovery program.
Following their May 2024 split, which Geffen filed for citing irreconcilable differences, Michaels alleges Geffen refused to negotiate unless he fired his lawyers and even evicted him from their New York residence, effectively leaving him homeless and cut off financially.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages and attorney’s fees, painting Geffen as a man who used wealth and power to control and exploit a much younger partner under the guise of love and support.
Geffen has not yet responded to the legal filing, but if the explosive accusations are any indication, this divorce is set to become one of the messiest—and most talked about—in queer celebrity history.
Stay tuned, because this Hollywood breakup is far from over.