Inside Phil Collins and ex-wife Orianne Cevey’s heated splits

The pair started dating when Cevey, who is from a Swiss-Thai background, was just 21 and hired to be Collins’ translator during the singer’s 1994 tour of Switzerland.

Phil Collins was at his $40 million Miami home in July when he received a text from his girlfriend Orianne Cevey — who is also his ex-wife — telling him she had met someone else.

They were both in the house at the time. But Cevey, 46, could not bring herself to tell him in person, an insider told The Post.

Instead, she sent the singer a message which read: “I want to find happiness with somebody else, you have met him, his name is Thomas,” according to the insider.

Cevey was allegedly only prompted to tell Collins, 69, all about Thomas Bates after her two sons with the singer — Nic, 19, and Matthew, 16 — spotted her canoodling with this new man at a Fourth of July bash.

“I don’t know how Orianne met Bates, but she had apparently brought him to a couple of events. There was a July fourth barbecue where the boys saw them together and apparently the boys said ‘Mom, you better tell Dad about this, or we will,’” the insider claimed.

Collins was left “shocked … and feeling like a bit of a fool” — and even more so after finding out that Cevey had secretly married 31-year-old Bates on Aug. 2, according to a friend. The couple wed at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas with an Elvis impersonator officiating.

What ensued next — including Cevey reportedly holding Collins’ waterfront mansion “hostage” with armed guards on the premises — has pushed their relationship back in the headlines.

Cevey is now set to file a counterclaim to Collins’ recently mediated suit to “evict” her, in a Miami court this week. In it, she plans to allege that Collins is “impossible to live with” and has become “withdrawn,” as she battles to get half the home they bought in 2015. She will also detail the injuries, including falling on his head, that have caused the singer to be rushed to hospital over the past few years.

A source close to Collins said: “The man has a serious neurological problem that requires him to take daily medication and this means he does fall sometimes on stage.”

The seven-time Grammy winner has also spoken about his struggles with alcoholism, saying in 2016 that he ended up in intensive care. “A doctor said to my girlfriend at the time … ‘Is Mr Collins’ will in order?’” he told Yahoo News: “That is when I finally got better because the guy said I was going to die.”

Collins had to retire from drumming in 2011 after injuring a vertebrae in his neck, leaving him with crippling nerve damage. He has been seen in public with a cane and also in a wheelchair. In May, he fell backward off a chair while watching his son Nic perform a drum solo in North Carolina.

“He’s currently in the UK in rehearsals with Genesis,” added the close Collins source. “If he was in that much of a state he would not be able to function.”

Collins is watching the drama with his ex play out “with increasing disbelief,” said the insider. “He thought things were pretty good … then it all started unravelling.”

The pair started dating when Cevey, who is from a Swiss-Thai background, was just 21 and hired to be Collins’ translator during the singer’s 1994 tour of Switzerland.

They wed in 1999 — she was his third wife — and had their sons. (Collins also has three children, including actress Lily Collins, from his previous marriages.) When the two called it quits in 2008, Collins paid out $45.76 million, or £25 million — a record amount in the UK at the time.

But before the divorce was finalized, Cevey had started dating banker Charles Fouad Mejjati, whom she later married and had a son with, nine-year-old Andrea. In 2015, however, things took a dramatic turn that brought to mind the title of one of Collins’ hit songs: “Against All Odds.” Cevey has said she left her husband to go back to Collins, setting off a bitter divorce battle with Mejjati.

Collins, meanwhile, dumped Dana Tyler, his girlfriend of 10 years and a CBS news anchor in New York City, for Cevey. Tyler was said to be heartbroken and took three months off work for “personal reasons.”

Collins said: “It’s great to be back with Orianne. We had a wonderful life when we were together. Then we lost the plot for a little bit and got separated.” Cevey told the Mail on Sunday that they got back together after she was nearly paralyzed from back surgery in 2014, which left her contemplating suicide. “I realized I never wanted to be apart from him again,” she said. “I’m grateful we have this second chance at love.”

Said the insider: “Being Phil’s girlfriend is a good gig. You get to live in a $40 million mansion, drive expensive cars, fly on private jets and go to A-list parties. You get to use his credit card, all kinds of good stuff.

“Obviously, Orianne liked that, but apparently she was not satisfied just being his girlfriend and wanted to go out” and be with other men.

One unlikely person looking out for him is male escort Preston Thompson.

The man has a serious neurological problem that . . . means he does fall sometimes on stage.

 - Close Phil Collins source on the singer

The Sun recently reported that Cevey had had an affair with 29-year-old Thompson last year. He claimed that she whisked him off on a private jet to the Bahamas and took him as her date to Sir Elton John’s Oscars party. He said he also enjoyed visits with her in Miami during their secret 14-month tryst.

“Orianne is trying to ruin Phil’s life. He took care of her, gave her millions of dollars, and now she wants more,” Thompson told The Sun. “I think she still wants to live that rockstar life, but Phil is done with that and has settled down.

“She has treated Phil like he is lower than dirt. She is two-faced.”

Thompson added: “She said that they hadn’t had sex for so long and, although it sounds really messed up, she said that he never showers — he smells. Orianne wanted to have sex all the time, but with younger people than Phil.”

Lawyers for Collins declined to comment.

Thompson said he broke up with Cevey after finding texts in her phone from another man (not Bates). He added that he texted Collins to let him know what Cevey was up to but never heard back.

Following Cevey’s text to Collins about finding love with Bates, the singer hired Florida attorney Jeffrey Fisher and, The Post is told, Cevey was offered a “smooth transition” to move out of the Miami home they shared.

“Phil didn’t know this would be messy,” said the insider. “His lawyer sent Orianne a letter, basically saying, ‘We wish you well, but obviously, you can’t live in the house, you can’t use Phil’s credit cards and cars. But here’s what we’re willing to do — you can stay in the house until the end of September [2020] and here’s a bit of money to help you get a rental and you can stay on the health insurance.

“But the next thing was, they found out she had bought a house in Vegas … and then somebody smart at the lawyer’s office said, ‘Well, if she’s got a house, then we should check the marriage records.’ And they went, ‘Holy s–t, she got married!’

She moved Bates into Collins’ home and said she could not be out by the end of September, alleging that Collins had promised he would support her if they split up before their youngest son turned 18.

But, said the insider, “Orianne is married! Phil is under no obligation to give her a penny. He already gave her more than $40 million [in their 2008 divorce] and the boys are looked after with trusts of their own.”

Collins offered Cevey another month to stay in the house and flew to the UK, where he has been in rehearsals for a Genesis tour. He planned to return to Miami for the holidays and expected Cevey would be gone.

However, Cevey’s legal team struck with a bid to get millions more from the star.

In court documents filed in Miami Dade County small claims court and seen by The Post, Collins’ legal team applied for an injunction to get his ex out, only for her to take the house “hostage.” Included are statements from a broker allegedly denied access by Cevey to the house, which is now on the market. A security expert gave an affidavit that he was forced by a Cevey employee to remove Collins’ password from the security system as three armed guards stood by.

Following recent mediation, it was agreed that Cevey and Bates would move out by the end of January. However, The Post has learned that, in the pending counterclaim, Cevey will argue that Collins verbally promised to give her half of the house in exchange for her leaving Mejjati.

As for the $45.76 million divorce money she first received from Collins, the insider said: “I think she made bad investments.”
Cevey’s attorney Richard Wolfe told The Post: “Orianne has respected Phil as the father of her children and chosen to let this process play out in the court of law versus in the media. Orianne will not be frightened away from what is hers and what she was promised.”

“Orianne is going to continue making ridiculous and baseless allegations because she thinks that attempting to embarrass him by making false claims is going to get her more money,” said the close Collins sources. “And it’s not.”

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