Divorce and Debt: What You Owe and What You Don't

By the time Cherie Kerr and her ex-husband finally went their separate ways, her ex had run up $89,000 in debt during the divorce proceedings alone. She knew that if she didn't take action fast, that debt would scar her financial life forever.

In a way, Kerr knew the marriage was over before it began. Her husband, a home builder, almost immediately asked to borrow $100,000 on Kerr's house to finance his business "and I stupidly agreed," says Kerr, who owns a publicity firm in Santa Ana, Calif.

He said he'd pay her back in six months, but after five years, when the marriage was crumbling -- in large part because Kerr says she didn't trust her husband -- he still hadn't paid her back. He finally managed to do so a few months before the divorce papers were to be signed, and Kerr breathed a huge sigh of relief. Yet, a few weeks later, Kerr learned that her husband had taken out a $150,000 line of credit in both of names and had already spent $89,000 of it.