Some Dallas couples can see the end of a marriage looming on the horizon. When they do, there are some basic preparations they can begin to make to protect themselves during the divorce process and possibly help speed it along. However, divorce also strikes some partners as a complete surprise. This is particularly true for one popular musician, who is claiming that she was never married in the first place.

In 2008, Australian-born rapper Iggy Azalea was living in Texas with her partner. He claims that they had agreed to present themselves publicly as husband and wife and that they had, in fact, agreed to live together as a married couple, although there was no engagement, no ceremony, no marriage license and so on. Last year, the couple separated and Azalea has been in a relationship with a professional basketball player since then.

Now, Azalea’s ex has filed divorce paperwork in Texas, asking the court to order her not to sell assets they acquired together. Texas, as our readers will know, is a community property state and therefore nearly anything of value the couple acquired during the marriage will be regarded as community property by a court. This is particularly complicated in the case above as the rapper’s royalties and rights to her music catalogue could be at stake, with Azalea’s ex potentially being awarded half of those as community property.

Azalea claims that she never agreed to the conditions for a common-law marriage and was shocked by the divorce filing. In Texas, the conditions described above do constitute a common-law marriage, which the law regards as virtually identical to a traditional marriage. We’ll take a look at this arrangement in more detail in an upcoming blog post.