Former Real Housewives of New Jersey star Dina Manzo and her husband, David Cantin, took steps to get a divorce before seemingly reconciling.
According to California court documents exclusively obtained by Us Weekly, Manzo, 54, secretly filed for a legal separation from Cantin in March 2025 after nearly eight years of marriage.
In her filing, she stated the pair tied the knot in June 2017 and split the same day she filed for separation on March 4, 2025.
Cantin filed his own paperwork for divorce six days later, on March 10, 2025, in Florida. In his petition for divorce, Cantin claimed they married on June 28, 2018, in Malibu, California, and the marriage was “irretrievably broken.”
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He alleged that his wife had been permanently residing in Florida since 2021 and they last lived together as husband and wife in the Sunshine State.
At the time of his filing, Cantin asked the court to equitably distribute their marital assets with an unequal distribution in his favor, citing the “duration of the marriage and [his] extraordinary contributions to the acquisition, enhancement and production of income or the improvement of both the marital assets and the non-marital assets.”
He also asked that the court award his attorneys’ fees and costs to the “extent the wife engages in unnecessary… or vexatious litigation.”
In her own separate filing in California, Manzo also cited irreconcilable differences and requested spousal support and attorneys’ fees, but did not want him to be awarded spousal support. She stated in docs that she would address any assets and debts at a later date.
In April 2025, both parties decided to halt the cases “in an effort to resolve all issues in a dignified, private and cooperative manner” and “attempt to reach a mutually agreed upon resolution of all issues,” without the court’s involvement, according to docs.
Nearly one year after they filed for divorce and separation, respectively, court documents obtained by Us reveal both Manzo and Cantin requested that their petitions be dismissed just over a month ago on March 27.
Us Weekly has reached out to Manzo’s team for comment. Cantin’s lawyer told Us, “We do not comment about our clients or cases.”
And just one day after voluntarily dismissing their court cases, Manzo shared happy memories from a tropical — and romantic — getaway with Cantin.
“D&D 2.0 ❤️ {paradise edition},” she wrote via Instagram on March 28.
Just weeks earlier, Manzo also praised “my husband” for setting “the birthday bar dangerously high this year” after she appeared to receive a special Studio 54-themed birthday party on March 7.
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Fans met Dina when she helped launch The Real Housewives of New Jersey in 2009 with Teresa Giudice, Jacqueline Laurita, Caroline Manzo and Danielle Staub.
She stepped away from the show after season 2 and made brief appearances in season 4 before returning full-time for season 6. Although she was asked to continue with the show, Dina chose to step away for good and enjoy a more private life in California. (The reality star didn’t publicly confirm her 2017 wedding to Cantin until two years later.)
“Of course, they asked me back,” Dina recalled to Fox 411 in May 2016. “I thought about it for a minute, and I thought, ‘How am I supposed to do this? I don’t live there.’ … I’m kind of the person that if it’s not comfortable and it doesn’t fit who I am, I walk. You have to be happy and if it doesn’t sit well with your soul, you have to listen to that.”
As for Cantin, he never appeared on Bravo but found himself in the headlines when Dina’s ex-husband, Thomas Manzo, was convicted of hiring a “reputed mobster” in 2015 to assault her then-boyfriend.
After Thomas was found guilty in June 2024, Dina shared a photo of herself raising her hands up to the sky while the sunshine rained down on a large monument.
