"there was NOTHING legally stopping her from marrying him"
UNLESS HE WAS ALREADY MARRIED!
We know nothing about this person, Howard K. Stern. The media seems to be unwilling or unable to write a biographical timeline since he began his legal practice in California early 90's.
Very mysterious.
Very. I just found this little blurb on HKS:
Records show that he attended the University of California at Berkeley and UCLA Law School, passed the California Bar and was admitted to practice in 1994. But a search of legal data bases did not show any cases in which he had been the attorney of record.
Public records also showed that the 38-year-old Californian maintains an apartment in Santa Monica, Calif., from which he operated a business called “Hot Smoochie Lips Inc.” The nature of the business was not known.
Hot smoochie lips?