Following the release of Papa John's founder John Schnatter's widely shared "over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days" revelation, it's now being reported that Annette Cox—Schnatter's wife of more than 30 years—has filed for divorce.
According to TMZ, Cox filed paperwork in Kentucky on Thursday, describing their marriage as "irretrievably broken" and noting that they have actually been separated since April of this year. A property settlement agreement (the couple owned multiple million-dollar homes) is said to already be in place.
Meanwhile, Schnatter filed a lawsuit Thursday in connection with his ousting from the Papa John's company. CNBC reports that the suit alleges that Laundry Service—an ad agency he was on a conference call with when using a racial slur—recorded their conversation "without his knowledge." According to the suit, Laundry Service is accused of leaking portions of the call to Forbes, which Schnatter's team argues would mark a breach of a nondisclosure agreement. In a statement, Schnatter reaffirmed his stance that the offending comments were "taken out of context" with the intent of creating controversy.
Speaking with WDRBlast month, Schnatter promised a "day of reckoning" for the Papa John's company and detailed his aforementioned experiment with eating a lot of pizza.
"I've had over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days and it's not the same pizza," he said. "It's not the same product. It just doesn't taste as good." He also criticized current CEO Rob Lynch, formerly of Arby's, for having "no pizza experience."
