Comedian was 'broke' in $3M house after water shut off during divorce
Laura Clery is giving fans an inside look into some of her darker moments in her memoir.
In her new memoir, "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Hotter," the 39-year-old actress and comedian opened up about her relationship with her ex-husband, Stephen Hilton, and their tumultuous separation.
The "Shanked" star described the day she found out Hilton had allegedly been cheating on her by visiting massage parlors that seemingly offered "happy endings." She explained that "it was hard not to take it personally," as they had just been intimate earlier that day, and even though it left her feeling she wasn't "enough," she writes what she "mainly felt was hurt, and empathy toward him."
"It wouldn’t be my lack that drove Stephen to a stranger," she alleged in her memoir. "It would be his. It would be the thing we’d both tried to fill with drugs and alcohol and sex—the hole in the soul that, if we weren’t careful, could take us down to the rock bottom we both knew so well. I decided that I would meet him with grace and love and empathy, because if he was spiraling, the last thing he would need is to feel alone."
After Hilton returned home, Clery allegedly confronted him, noting she was initially met with apologies and promises to call his sponsor, which left her feeling as if "Stephen and I could manage this challenge together" and eventually "move forward."
Later that night, however, she claims her ex-husband called her and allegedly began hurling insults at her, telling her, "I don’t have a problem. This is your fault! You’re just so f---ing controlling!" Following the phone call, she checked his location and found he was allegedly at yet another massage parlor.
"If I could say anything to my then-self, I’d tell her to buckle up," Clery wrote. "Change the locks. Call your mom, call your lawyer, call your best friend. Believe the voice inside your head when it tells you that something is wrong. Be smart, be brave, and you’ll get through this."
The following day, Clery recalled a family trip to Malibu, during which Hilton allegedly began screaming in front of their young children that he planned to take his life. She alleged that he screamed "I’m going to kill myself, and it’s your f---ing fault!" He then left the house and Clery called the police, but once they found him, he presented as "a man who was absolutely fine—a man with a crazy, overdramatic wife."
She claims that she woke up the next day to messages asking if she was OK, and discovered Hilton had taken to social media and shared details of the incident with his followers. She says he allegedly didn't seem to care that she was upset about his videos, helping her realize he didn't care about salvaging their relationship, and that they needed time apart. She also alleged she later found out that Hilton had relapsed in his drug addiction at this time.
"I realized in a flash of clarity—truly, it felt like life b-----slapping me in the face—that I had deluded myself into thinking that the worst was over," she wrote. "I knew in my bones that we were a ways from better days. We had to separate."
From there, Clery writes that the separation evolved into years of legal disputes, financial hardship and a painful process of rebuilding her life as a single mother.
Clery alleges Hilton later broke into her home, leading to his arrest, hacked her social media accounts and launched an online community that portrayed her as Satan, claims she says further damaged both her finances and emotional well-being.
The couple announced their separation in August 2022 and filed for divorce in June 2023. In the memoir, Clery also goes into detail about her financial struggles following their separation and divorce.
She recalled staying in mediation with Hilton for too long, because she "was scared to let go of my creative partner" and "scared to stop sharing the bills with him," but also thought that by continuing to work with him, she could help him, but noted, "You can’t pay your water bill with good intentions."
"That fear cost me two years and so much money," she wrote. "Thousands and thousands of dollars gone, until I didn’t have the money left to even keep the endless mediation going. Maybe that was Stephen’s plan all along. Maybe he wanted me to bleed out financially. And maybe I played right into it."
Clery described "living from massive paycheck to massive paycheck," claiming she was paying both her mortgage and Hilton's mortgage, along with two years of mediation.
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She explained that during their marriage "Stephen handled the money," and after her water was shut off one evening, she "realized I had handed away my power with every bill I refused to look at."
"My water got shut off. In my three-million-dollar house. Yes, you read that correctly. I was broke. In a three-million-dollar house," she wrote. "Having my water shut off? Yeah, that was my bottom. But it was a lesson I needed to learn. Look at the d--- bills. Face the scary thing. Because if you keep ignoring it, you’ll get something much scarier than dry taps and overflowing toilets."
In the midst of their separation, Clery endured false allegations against her that she abused her children, but ultimately was awarded full custody, with Hilton getting supervised visitation, but she is hopeful about his recovery.
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"One day, maybe, Alfie and Poppy will be able to spend time with their dad without court supervision. Maybe Stephen will stay sober. To his credit, by mid-November, he passed one hundred days of sobriety. Maybe this chapter of our lives might finally be coming to a close. Maybe. Time will tell," she concluded. "For now, my guard is up, my boundaries are firm, and I’m cautiously inching toward hope again."
Hilton has publicly discussed his struggles with addiction and his mental health in the years since their separation.