Years before the TV side of the Star Trek franchise was revitalized on CBS All Access-turned-Paramount+ with shows like Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks, moviegoers were watching the crew of the USS Enterprise in the Kelvin timeline on the big screen. Roberto Orci co-wrote the first Star Trek reboot movie with Alex Kurtzman, and following that flick’s successful run, the two men paired up again for Star Trek Into Darkness. However, Orci now finds himself in the news not because he’s working on the frequently-delayed Star Trek 4, but because he’s filed a restraining order claiming that his wife burned him with “scalding hot soup.”
As detailed in legal documents that The Blast acquired, Roberto Orci filed for divorce from his wife, Adele Heather Taylor, and has asked the court to file a restraining order against her domestic violence. Orci claims that Taylor has been abusing him for years, and her allegedly burning him with soup was the most example of this. According to Orci, the two of them were arguing on December 22, 2022, with Taylor threatening to divorce him and “clean” him out, as well as insulting him in various ways. Orci says he tried not to engage with her and instead went into the kitchen and heated up a bowl of soup.
After the soup was heated, and while Adele Heather Taylor was still yelling at him, Roberto Orci started walking up the stairs, and she allegedly “pushed the bowl of scalding hot soup” into his face. Orci says he was able to block the bowl with his hand, but this led to him sustaining second-degree burns on his arm from the hot soup contents, and upon him reacting to the pain, Taylor allegedly snapped back at him to “shut up” and that he would be “fine.”Along with delivering this account, Orci also shared photos of his burnt arm.
Other incidents of alleged domestic abuse that Roberto Orci recounts in these legal documents include Adele Heather Taylor strangling him while they were in a hotel room in Las Vegas (he says the police arrested her for domestic battery), her pushing him down a flight of stairs last November, her punching him in the face three times while he was driving after he’d stopped her from getting into a fight earlier in the night and macing him in the face back in 2019. Orci also mentioned a time when Taylor allegedly hit their bedroom door with a baseball bat after he refused to engage her in an argument. Returning to the present day, Orci cites “irreconcilable differences” for why he’s separating from his wife, and he’s asking that a judge order Taylor to stay away from him.
Roberto Orci and Adele Heather Taylor will now have to argue their sides through their legal teams, after which a judge will rule whether or not a restraining order will be filed. It’s also worth mentioning that Orci acknowledged that he didn’t cooperate with police when Taylor was allegedly arrested, so no charges were filed against her. Should there be any major updates in this legal saga, we’ll pass them along.
Like the majority of Star Trek movies and TV shows, if you’re wanting to watch Roberto Orci’s work in 2009’s Star Trek and 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, you’ll need to have a Paramount+ subscription. Orci was also involved with 2016’s Star Trek Beyond as a producer, but there’s been no word about him being involved with Star Trek 4, which lost director Matt Shakman last August.