Avril Lavigne Files For Divorce From Deryck Whibley (Who Isn't Dead)

10/15/09 12:21pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Avril Lavigne filed for divorce from Sum 41 singer/guitarist Deryck Whibley on Wednesday.

TMZ says Lavigne's divorce papers cite "irreconcilable differences" for their split, and says they separated on Sept. 4. Lavigne will not seek spousal support from Whibley, and also does not want to give him any money as part of the divorce.

Rumours the couple were to split emerged last fall, but Lavigne and Whibley denied them. But the two confirmed they had split up last month and issued separate statements about it, saying they would stay friends. Lavigne and Whibley married in 2006 after dating for two years.

Whibley also found himself the subject of a celebrity death rumour on Wednesday afternoon, which would have been around the same time his marriage was being killed.

Andrew Bucket, a writer and booking manager and another person who is the editor for the BrightestYoungThings blog, are responsible for the rumour according to Altpress.com. The website reports Bucket randomly chose Whibley and began posting about his "death" on Twitter, and BrightestYoungThings picked it up and published it.

"I did this, but that doesn't mean I thought it through," Bucket told Altpress.com. "We did it with this awful intent. If his family saw that on the internet and even had a moment of terror, I would feel absolutely terrible."

BrightestYoungThings editor Svetlana Legetic said the rumour was apparently intended to "be some kind of a test as to how viral news of this variety go (celebrity deaths being the constant trending topic on twitter etc)."

In case it's not clear, Whibley is very much alive.