Metallica’s James Hetfield Has Filed for Divorce After 25 Years of Marriage, Report Says

A source close to the couple says that the Metallica frontman filed the divorce papers earlier this year.

James Hetfield filed for divorce from his wife Francesca Hetfield earlier this year, TMZ reports. The two had been married for over two decades, and have three children together.

The outlet cites a source close to the couple who said that the divorce had been filed in Colorado some time ago but has been successfully kept secret as no reports have been made about it until now.

The Metallica frontman first met Francesca in 1992, and the couple married five years later on August 17, 1997. The couple is still said to be in touch and is co-parenting their two daughters and son Castor, who has embarked on his own career of being a professional musician as the drummer of Bastardane.

Hetfield has always been open about personal battles such as his early ’00s struggle with alcohol addiction (some of which was detailed in the 2004 documentary “Some Kind of Monster”). In 2016, he told Joe Rogan how Francesca helped him get sober at the time:

“My wife did the right thing — she kicked my ass right out of the house and that scared the shit out of me. She said, ‘Hey, you’re not just going to the therapist now and talking about this. You’ve got to go somewhere and sort this shit out.’ So that’s what I did… What worked for me was seven weeks someplace — like, basically tearing you down to bones, ripping your life apart. Anything you thought about yourself or what it was, anything you thought you had, your family, your career, anything, gone. Strip you down to just — you’re born. Here’s how you were when you were born — you were okay. You were a good person. Let’s get back to that again. Then they slowly rebuild you.”

In 2019, the Metallica frontman had undergone a relapse, causing the band’s Australia and New Zealand tour to be postponed as he checked in to rehab once again. Upon successfully completing the program, James made his first public appearance in February of 2020, and has since returned to playing with the band.

Last May, James Hetfield shared an emotional moment with his bandmates and the audience present at Metallica’s concert in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Before receiving another group hug from his bandmates, Hetfield told the fans:

“I’ve gotta tell you I wasn’t feeling very good before I came out here. [I was] feeling a little bit insecure like I’m an old guy, [I] can’t play anymore — all this bullshit that I tell myself in my head. So I talked to these guys, and they helped me — as simple as that. They gave me a hug and said, ‘Hey, if you’re struggling on stage, we’ve got your back.’ And I tell you, it means the world to me.”