LOVE AFTER LOCKUP Rachel has legal custody of Dougie, divorce from Doug finalized
On the season finale of Love After Lockup, viewers got to see Rachel and Doug’s marriage implode after Rachel found out that Doug was cheating on her. Doug hopped on a motorcycle with his buddy and headed back to Kalamazoo, where he was later arrested and charged with eight felonies.
The Rachel and Doug cloud seemed a bit too dark for a silver lining, but Love After Lockup fans got exactly that during the closing credits of the finale episode. WE tv provided updates on the couples, and they revealed that Doug’s son, Dougie, is living with Rachel!
Rachel shared the same photo with Dougie on her Instagram feed and added the caption: “When a relationship ends between two people, it never ends with a child. Great things came out of my mistakes.” She added a string of hash tags that included #onceastepparentalwaysastepparent, #lifegoeson and #liveandlearn. The post concluded with the 🙏❤️ emoji.
Rachel has legal custody of Dougie
Not only was Dougie with Rachel at the time of the finale, it looks like he will be with her for a long time to come as Rachel has reportedly gotten full legal custody of him. Sarah from Realiteasquad shared a YouTube video (included below) on Tuesday with additional details on the Dougie custody situation from a “source close to Rachel.”
Sarah reports that Doug took his son when he left Rachel last year. They reportedly moved in with Brittany, the young lady who outed herself as Doug’s new old girlfriend back in July. “I do have confirmation that that is in fact who Doug went to live with,” Sarah says of Brittany. She confirms that the woman Rachel found out that Doug was cheating with during the finale is Brittany.
Sarah shared additional information about Dougie’s living situation — and it is as bizarre as it is repulsive:
[Dougie] was living with Doug and this new woman, Brittany, and actually her whole family. I was told — and this was a source close to Rachel — that Doug actually moved him and Dougie in with Brittany and her husband and their kids.
When we heard that Brittany was married, I had just assumed that…they were still legally married, but probably they were separated, or just hadn’t filed papers or something along those lines. But, it turns out that this woman is very much married and very much in a relationship with her legal husband, also having an affair with [Doug], moved him in, and then was continuing to go on other dates.
Wait, what?! Doug sure doesn’t really seem like the type to be a brother husband? More from Sarah:
…There’s been a lot of speculation online if Rachel has legal custody of Dougie or if this is more of an informal custody agreement. So, I reached out and…I was informed that Rachel was called by a caseworker when SWAT arrived — so about…a week or two weeks ago when that raid happened and it was all over the news and all over social. That is when Rachel was contacted to come get Dougie if she would be interested, and of course she was interested.
Sarah says there were “several children” in the home that were “alone and they all had head lice” when Rachel came to get Dougie.
“Rachel now has custody of little Dougie,” Sarah assures us. “It is a court-appointed custody agreement.”
Here’s the full video, which includes evidence that Brittany may have been involved in the crimes Doug was arrested for:
Rachel and Doug officially divorced
It has been a crazy month for Rachel! According to court records, it was exactly one week after Doug was arrested and hit with eight felony charges that Rachel and Doug’s divorce was finalized!
As we were the first to report, Rachel filed for divorce from Doug way back on November 9 of last year. However, that filing was dismissed in March. Rachel re-filed for divorce on June 8. According to court records, the judge in the dissolution of marriage case signed off on the default judgment of divorce on August 19.
I simply cannot imagine what a whirlwind week that was for Rachel! Doug gets arrested as part of some huge sting operation and she is contacted to come and pick up Dougie. I’m assuming that it is during this time Rachel is able to get legal custody of Dougie. Then, on August 19, her divorce from Doug is finalized.
Did Rachel stall the divorce to get custody of Dougie?
I did some additional poking around through court records and I saw that there was a case regarding Dougie’s guardianship that dates all the way back to 2009. The dockets reveal that Doug’s sister, Ashley, became Dougie’s official guardian in May of 2014. There were numerous entries in the case that looked to be cyclical reporting and changes of address right up until last year.
One example of the atypical filings from last year is a show cause hearing in August, 2020. From Divorcenet.com:
A show cause hearing is scheduled when one spouse (or a parent) involved in a family law or domestic relations case, files legal paperwork asking the court for some specific relief. These hearings can relate to many types of family court orders, including the enforcement of custody and visitation, property, and alimony orders.
There was a review of guardianship that resulted in the termination of Ashley’s guardianship on August 2 of this year. Dougie’s custody case was then closed.
This is purely speculation, but I am guessing that Rachel filed for divorce not long after she found out about Doug’s cheating and gave him the boot. However, she later found out that the custody battle for Dougie would take longer than the divorce, so she let that initial filing be dismissed.
Rachel later filed again when it looked like the custody battle would resolve prior to the divorce being finalized. As Doug’s wife, and Dougie’s legal stepmom, Rachel would have solid legal ground to file for custody — especially given Doug’s extensive criminal history. Once the two were divorced, I’m guessing she would have next to zero chance of getting legal custody of Dougie. Let me iterate that this is all purely speculation.
Regardless of how it all played out, Rachel has seemingly accomplished the impossible by actually turning her relationship with Doug into something very positive — custody of Dougie. Now she finds herself in the position of living out a completely different “love after lockup” scenario as Dougie’s legal mom. We sincerely wish them both the best, and look forward to sharing numerous positive updates over the next few years!
Meanwhile, we will almost certainly be providing numerous non-positive updates on Doug. It appears that he will be in prison for a long, long time.
#LoveAfterLockup Doug has been arrested again and is facing multiple felony charges. #SaveDougie https://t.co/qnm3GG5sRn pic.twitter.com/GxeZ9rxFam
— Starcasm (@starcasm) August 15, 2021
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
