When Terry spoke about his failed marriage, he said that his fame had a negative effect on it. He said he was in a situation where he had to choose between Melinda and his mother, as Melinda did not allow his mother to attend any of his functions or programs. Terry denied the rumors of his affairs and cheating stories, stating that he had no extramarital relationships while married to Melinda, and that when they separated, Melinda began to spread stories to make him look bad. He also said that Melinda did not want to have children, which caused a lot of stress in his life. He said he was dominated by her and was never allowed to make any decisions. He said that when he wrote his book, she became angry that she was not credited.

Melinda had a different story for this accusation. She said that she had never been domineering and had only edited some spelling mistakes in the book. She said that she had never known about his intention of seeking a divorce until he demanded it. She said that they had talked about children before they got married, and she had told him that she did not want to have any, to which he had agreed. However, after many years, he changed his mind and started forcing her to have children. This was when he was on a long road trip with his assistant. He started dating her and he gathered all the reasons to get divorced from Melinda. She said that when people started to question him as to whether he had left Melinda for a younger partner, he started to play the victim card and blamed the relationship for being very stressful. Another source stated that the separation had nothing to do with career stress. They had been together when they were almost broke and had borrowed from everyone they could. It was said that Melinda had stood by his side and even quit her job to support his career, but Terry had never given her credit for whatever she had done for him. The details of the separation settlement are not known to the public.