Terrence Howard's ex-wife apparently blackmailed him in their divorce settlement in order to get a cut of his future earnings. But the judge has ruled that he signed the agreement under coercion so now the divorce settlement will have to be renegotiated.

I love this part:

At least one family-law lawyer was surprised by the judge's ruling.

“If the fear of embarrassment is enough to claim you don’t have to honor a contract, then the integrity of contracts has officially been lowered to less than a handshake,” said Michael Stutman, head of family law at Mischon de Reya New York. “Claiming you don’t have to honor a signed divorce agreement because you were fearing embarrassment is a cop-out excuse to not fulfill your obligations, and I’m shocked the courts have ruled in his favor.”

Except we have precedents when judges threw out prenups because a woman felt "pressured" never mind being outright blackmailed!

Lewis [the judge] also heard a 2011 call in which Ghent [ex-wife] berated Howard and threatened to sell private information about him if he didn't pay her money by the end of the day. Howard's accountant sent Ghent $40,000 in response to the call, which he called "hush money."

This is straight up blackmail. Imagine if it was the other way around. If Terrence Howard had naked pics of his ex-wife and threatened to release them, he would prosecuted under revenge porn laws.

All that's going to happen in his case is the divorce settlement will be renegotiated but there's no mention of the ex-wife being prosecuted for extortion.