Though their relationship has since disintegrated into scandal-ridden tabloid fodder, Tarlton Morton, the ex-wife of Peter Morton, recalled in court Wednesday a time when her marriage to the Hard Rock Café co-founder was blissful.
"I was in love, and I just never imagined that we wouldn't be together forever," she testified.
During the third week of the trial in Los Angeles Superior Court over claims made by Tarlton (pictured below, from her Facebook page) that Morton defrauded her out of over $10 million in stock in Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and hired private investigators to stalk and harass her, it was clear the pair couldn't be more at odds.
Morton, of course, was once a fixture of the Hollywood community. He co-founded the Hard Rock Café chain, which was sold in 1995, and the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, which was sold in 2006. His iconic Melrose Avenue restaurant, Morton's, where he hosted the annual Vanity Fair Oscars bash for a number of years until it was closed in 2007, was a watering hole for Industry elite. More recently, he’s served as producer on two films -- "Snatch" and the less-successful "Stardust."
The past weeks have seen testimony from Morton himself, other investigators, financial experts and neighbors of Tarlton. In court on Wednesday, it was finally time for Tarlton -- dressed in a creme-colored ensemble, clutching a Chanel purse and sipping from a can of Red Bull before getting on the stand -- to tell her side as her ex-husband, dressed in a gray suit, yawned frequently from the sidelines.
The feuding couple made no eye contact during Tarlton's testimony.
“This day has been a long time coming for you," her attorney, Paul Nelson, said after she was seated on the witness stand.
Chuckling, she replied: "Yes. Yes, it has."
She told of meeting Morton after moving to Los Angeles at age 24. She was in the art business, she said, working in a gallery housed in a building Morton owned. He came in one day to look at some artwork, and "about two seconds later he called me up and asked to take me out over the weekend."
"I think our second date was in the Bahamas," she said, smiling.
Married in 1990, the couple lived an extravagant lifestyle, traveling the world, frequenting exotic locations. Their wealth allowed her to be a stay-at-home mother to their two children together, something she said she felt "fortunate" to be able to do.
And when Morton decided to launch the Hard Rock Hotel, she said she weighed in, helping to pick the symbols that would go along the wall or the waitresses uniforms or bathing suits.
As part of the couple's prenuptial agreement, Tarlton was to receive a $100,000 trust fund for each year the two remained married. But when plans were drawn up to build the hotel, that portion of the agreement was amended because Morton offered Tarlton a "gift" of love, instead -- a 1 percent stake in the hotel.
