Gary Coleman’s Wife is Suspect, but Why Is That?

Filed under: Celebrity News, Dr. Boyce Money, News

For the past few days, America has stared with a twisted neck at Shannon Price, the widow of former child star Gary Coleman. After Coleman fell to the floor with a head injury, Price was on a 911 call doing everything except helping her husband. Then, the next day, she was doing interviews smiling like a beauty queen and hardly looking like the saddened widow. To make matters worse, she’s the one who allegedly pulled the hospital plug on Gary, relegating him to “Michael Jackson Land,” where all we have to remember him by are old re-runs.

Price’s odd behavior has led some to wonder just how badly she wanted her husband alive. I am not here to decide if she is innocent or guilty, but I can certainly say that the speculation has run rampant. Gary Coleman’s January arrest on a domestic violence warrant only adds to the public conjecture.

Dr. Robi Ludwig actually categorizes the reasons that people kill their spouses in her book, “Till Death Do us Part.” In this episode of “Financial Lovemaking,” S. Tia Brown and I talk about the Coleman situation within the context of spousal murder in general. In some cases, spouses are murdered for money and in other cases, it may be an escape from domestic violence. In any event, the decision to harm your spouse can cost you everything. In one case, University of Pennsylvania Professor Rafael Robb lost his entire career due to his decision to kill his wife after she told friends she was getting a divorce. Domestic violence (both giving and receiving) can be very bad and expensive decisions in a relationship, and murder is the worst decision of all.

The episode is below if you’d like to listen. Enjoy!

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

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