Woman with two husbands not a bigamist

• Tweet

NEW YORK, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- A New York woman who wound up with two husbands at the same time can keep the support payments from her first husband, court records show.

A recent court decision said husband No. 1, Daniel Silber, can stop paying $60,000 in annual support, but Eda Silber, 37, of Long Island can keep the $300,000 she's already been paid, the New York Post reported Monday.

And even though Eda Silber married husband No. 2, George Frenkel, before her divorce from Daniel Silber became final, she's not a bigamist under law because there was no state marriage license involved in her second wedding, the court said.

Eda and Daniel Silber married in 1995 and had four children. In 2006, she left the family to move in with Frenkel, a wealthy 51-year-old pillow manufacturer who showered her with expensive gifts and vacations, court papers say.

Silber sued for divorce but Eda kept stalling all the while "she was being plied with lavish gifts by her male companion," hearing officer Stanley Gartenstein said.

Eda Silber, claiming to be an Orthodox Jew, allegedly married Frenkel last April in a religious service but without benefit of a state marriage, the Post reported.

Gartenstein ruled "the 'marriage' was neither a marriage nor was it 'religious,' in the face of Judaism's strict prohibition against a 'marriage' to one with whom intimacy has been shared while married to another.'"

"I think her strategy backfired. She had all of her necessities and luxuries paid for by her parents and her boyfriend, but she wasn't satisfied," said Daniel Silber's attorney, Stephen Gassman.

Eda Silber's divorce from Daniel is expected to be final in a week or so.