Having had his request turned down by Catholic bishops, Mel, 53, pleaded his case in front of a tribunal of members from the Church of the Holy Family, his breakaway Catholic church in Malibu.
Hutton, who once studied for the priesthood only to leave before he was ordained, presided over the hearing. He granted Mel's annulment request after his son presented evidence that his union to Robyn, 53, was never a true marriage — even though they wed in a Catholic ceremony in Australia in June 1980.
"Especially important was Mel's description of how he felt pressured into the marriage in the first place because Robyn was pregnant," a family insider says.
"Those feelings indicated to Hutton that it couldn't have been a true marriage, and so he felt it must be invalid.
And he only figured it out, now, huh? After he committed adultery and knocked up his girlfriend?
Look, play by Catholic rules, or don't call yourself Catholic. Self-appointed lay people can't annul marriages.
You can't go to the Catholic bishops and then scurry back to that schismatic sect every time things don't turn out the way you like.
