Anti-Trump actor Alan Ritchson and his wife, Catherine, are ending their 20 year marriage after a turbulent period that saw the “Reacher” star unleash profanity-laced attacks against President Donald Trump, face boycott calls from conservative viewers, and suffer an embarrassing box-office failure. The couple announced the split on Saturday, September 12th, saying they plan to remain friends and co-parent their three sons.
The announcement came less than two months after Ritchson ignited political firestorms during two separate podcast appearances. On “Happy Sad Confused,” the actor accused Trump of concealing material connected to Jeffrey Epstein, called the president a “b—-” and a “f—ing rapist,” and claimed he was “all up into 13-year-olds.” Days later, Ritchson said on “Armchair Expert” that Trump was “r-ping the world that he lives in for whatever gain he personally can have.” The White House publicly disputed his allegations, while many conservative viewers called for a boycott of “Reacher.”
Ritchson and Catherine didn’t publicly identify a specific cause for their separation or connect it to his political controversies. However, the marriage collapsed as the actor’s attacks increasingly overshadowed his work and alienated a substantial segment of the audience for “Reacher.” Whether that public and professional turmoil added pressure to an already-struggling marriage remains unknown, but the split adds another serious personal setback to an exceptionally rough period for the actor.
“After twenty years together, Cat and I have decided to end our marriage and continue alongside one another in a different way,” the couple said in a public statement, according to Fox News. “We grew up together. We built a life and a family together. And we are raising three incredible boys who will always be the center of our world.”
Ritchson’s feud with Trump supporters began long before his latest outburst. During a 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the self-described Christian actor called Trump “a r-pist and a con man” and attacked Christians who supported him. “The entire Christian church seems to treat him like he’s their poster child and it’s unreal,” Ritchson said. “I don’t understand it.”
The actor escalated those attacks during a July 2026 appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast while discussing the Epstein files. As Entertainment Weekly reported, Ritchson declared, “That b—- has the keys to the nuclear. He’s, like, all up into 13-year-olds. Like, dude, what? Go to jail. Go to jail.” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson responded that Trump had been “totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein” and cited his administration’s release of documents, cooperation with the House Oversight Committee, signing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calls for further investigations.
Ritchson’s subsequent remarks on “Armchair Expert” produced additional backlash. Conservative actors Kevin Sorbo and Dean Cain publicly mocked or criticized Ritchson, while many viewers urged others to stop watching “Reacher.” Mediaite reported that Sorbo wrote, “You’d think he’d be smart enough to keep his mouth shut because fans of Reacher happen to also be right-wing. But nope.”
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The controversy coincided with the disastrous theatrical release of Ritchson’s action movie “Motor City.” The film opened to approximately $1.6 million from 1,600 North American theaters and eventually reached only about $2.7 million domestically. The film’s collapse gave Ritchson’s critics a concrete example of what can happen when an actor repeatedly antagonizes potential customers, especially ones who are overwhelmingly the target demographic of the main genre of that actor.
Court documents reportedly show that Ritchson had already filed for divorce in December 2025, months before his latest Trump tirade, and that the couple attempted to reconcile in March. The couple ended their statement by asking the public for privacy: “We hope, especially for the sake of our boys, that you will allow our family to move through this chapter with privacy and compassion.”
Watch Ritchson attack Trump here: