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Child support disputes of the rich and famous: an update

| May 12, 2012 | Child Support

In Tennessee and other states, child support payments are normally calculated using a formula that takes various factors into account, including the needs of the child, the incomes of both parents and amount of time each parent will have with the child. While the specifics of these child support formulas vary from state to state, family court judges usually have at least some discretion to deviate from guideline amounts in appropriate circumstances.

Last August, we wrote a post about the $46,000 a month in child support well-known international supermodel Linda Evangelista asked a family court judge to order her son’s father to pay for his care. Their dispute eventually went to court and this past week, in the midst of a trial over how much the billionaire French fashion mogul father of the boy should have to pay — the two sides agreed to settle their dispute.

Both parents testified during the trial, answering questions on topics ranging from her modeling career and his finances to the briefness of the couple’s relationship and the limited contacts the French businessman has had with the boy since his birth in 2006.

Evangelista had been scheduled to continue her testimony on Monday.

Court documents indicate that Evangelista claims to have been spending every bit of the $46,000 in child support she requested on bodyguards, nannies, drivers, private school tuition and other essentials every month. Her lawyer noted that she did not seek financial help from the boy’s father at first but needs it now due to the significant drop in annual income she experienced after one of her major fashion contracts expired last year.

In his opening statement at trial, the father’s lawyer told members of the jury that neither he nor his client would claim he could not pay “a fair and reasonable child support” for the care of his son but that a request for $46,000 a month was “just ridiculous.”

Source: Yahoo, “Model, billionaire settle NYC child support fight,” Jennifer Peltz, May 7, 2012

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