Celebrities With Outrageous Child Support Payments
Sometimes it pays to put a condom on, literally. These famous men and women have shelled out incredible amounts of money each and every month to support their children. Child support payments among this bunch range from around $7,000 a month to a staggering $100,000 monthly, with one such recipient regarding the windfall as a pitiful destiny to have her child forever traveling "B class."
Keep reading to find out who had the audacity to call a healthy year's salary spent entirely on one child's care a pittance. You'll also discover which stars actually held up their end of the deal and consistently wrote these massive checks (hint: Not many), as well as which ones successfully argued their supports payments down, because who wouldn't want that kind of tabloid article existing forever for their kids to find one day, right? Without further ado, these are some of the most outrageous child support payments in Hollywood.
Francois-Henri Pinault — $46,000 a month
When your ex-lover is a billionaire and kids are involved, it seems there's no price too high to demand. Supermodel Linda Evangelista took billionaire businessman, and current husband of Salma Hayek, François-Henri Pinault, to court in 2012 demanding he pay upwards of $46,000 a month for their son Augie, according to the Daily News.
The breakdown of this money is mind blowing: receipts claim little Augie reportedly needs $1,500 a day for childcare and armed guards for his safety. That works out to be more than half a million dollars for the year. "I need to protect him," Evangelista told Love magazine (via ABC News).
While the amount may seem excessive, Evangelista explained it's for the boy's own good, since she's always working. "When I work, it can be a 16-hour day," she told the Daily News. "On days when I do not work, I am working on my image. I have to hit the gym. I have beauty appointments. I have to work toward my next job and maintaining my image, just like an athlete." Something tells us exhausted single moms everywhere are reading this and rolling their eyes.
Marc Anthony — $26,800 a month
The king of Latin music has deep pockets, or so it seems based on a myriad of child support stories. In 2014, Marc Anthony was ordered to pay a whopping $26,800 per month in child support, plus $12,000 per month for travel expenses, to ex-wife Dayanara Torres, who is the mother of two of his sons, Christian and Ryan, reported Us Weekly. Torres originally demanded Anthony's payments be raised from $13,400 to $123,426 a month due to lifestyle changes that would require a nanny and a housekeeper. That massive request was struck down by a judge, who also "terminated support when the kids turn 18 per California law," which was a reduction from the previous agreement that stipulated support would continue through their 21st birthday "plus college education."
Anthony has a daughter, Ariana, from a separate relationship, and twins, Emme and Max, with ex-wife Jennifer Lopez. According to Fox News Latino, neither Anthony nor Lopez pays child support for their twins.
Mel Gibson — $30,000 a month
Mel Gibson, whose estimated fortune was around $850 million in 2011, according to ABC News, was ordered to pay ex-wife Oksana Grigorieva child support in the amount of $30,000 a month. That's an annual sum of $360,000 for daughter Lucia, and up from the $20,000 per month she initially received after their split. The Russian pianist originally asked the judge to grant her $100,000 a month in child support payments, reported TMZ, which noted that Gibson allegedly offered her a staggering $15 million if she kept her mouth shut and didn't share controversial recordings of the Bravehart star. But everyone remembers how that played out, right?
Since Grigorieva didn't keep her end of the bargain, that settlement was reportedly reduced to $750,000, then further dropped to $250,000, again, per TMZ, after the Mad Max star's ex decided to air his dirty laundry on Howard Stern's show.
Charlie Sheen — $25,000 a month
During the peak of the popularity of Two and a Half Men in the early 2000s, Charlie Sheen was the highest-paid actor on television. He earned a staggering $1.8 million per episode of the CBS sitcom, according to E!, until he was fired after a public meltdown. Then hired on to star on FX's Anger Management, his salary ballooned to over $2 million per episode. That's a big nest egg with which one could comfortably raise many children, but in recent years, Sheen has run into some cash flow problems, which in turn decreased the amount of money he was able to send to the mothers of his children each month.
With second wife Denise Richards, Sheen is the father of daughters Sami and Lola Rose, born in 2004 and 2005, respectively. In 2009, he sired twins Max and Bob with third wife Brooke Mueller. And in August 2016, according to TMZ, Mueller and Richards both accepted Sheen's financial woes and agreed to have their monthly child support checks reduced from $55,000 to $25,000 — each. (The agreements were made out of court; had the cases gone before a judge, Sheen's responsibility could have been reduced to $10,000 a month, or lower.)
However, it would seem that Sheen still didn't keep up with his obligations. In September 2019, the Blast uncovered documents filed by The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star that claimed her former husband owed her "$450,000 in back child support."
Russell Simmons — $20,000 a month
As anyone who ever watched Life in the Fab Lane starring Kimora Lee Simmons knows, the former supermodel seems to love anything and everything fancy and bedazzled. According to People, that fab life was seemingly funded in part by $40,000 monthly support payments ($20,000 for each child) from Russell Simmons, a hip-hop mogul who co-founded Def Jam Recordings and is the current chairman and CEO of Rush Communications, and father of two children, Ming and Aoki, with his ex-wife. E! reported that Simmons would continue the payments "until each [daughter] reaches 19 and a half years old."
Ming is now in her twenties and so Simmons doesn't have to legally support her anymore, but at the time of his steep monthly payouts, the music industry veteran also had to provide a new, safe car worth at least $60,000, and to replace it every three years. As far as custody agreements went, Simmons was allowed to see his kids every eighth week during the school year and spend certain holidays with them, too. In response to media reports of the support payments, Simmons wrote on his blog (via E!), "Nothing was ordered, it was given. My kids have a fabulous life; they are exposed to a broad range of artistic and scholastic educational programs and I'm very happy to contribute to that. As long as I have it, they can have it. If I ever don't have it, I'm coming home to live with them!"
Paul McCartney — $70,000 a year
Paul McCartney's divorce settlement from ex-wife Heather Mills was one for the record books. Even though the music icon was only married to the model for four years, she was awarded $48,600,000 in the settlement. Mills was also granted about $70,000 a year in child support for the couple's daughter, Beatrice, "in addition to paying for her nanny and private school tuition," according to People.
Amazingly, that sum of money that is more per year than many people see in salary, did not sit well with Mills, who originally requested $250 million due to her estimate that the Beatles rocker's fortune was well over a billion dollars. "Everybody knows he is worth more than [$1.6 billion]," she told People, quipping that her daughter "is obviously meant to travel B class while her father travels A class."
Britney Spears — at least $20,000 a month
Pop queen Britney Spears may have only been married to backup dancer Kevin Federline for three years, but she'll be cutting him checks for much longer. In the couple's highly publicized divorce settlement, Spears was ordered to pay Federline $25,000 a month for each of the couple's two sons, Sean and Jayden, until they turn 18, NBC's Today reported. E! crunched the numbers in 2010 and reported that Spears "shelled out $303,673.72 for child support and care" that year alone.
According to the Blast, by 2018, Spears (or her financial handlers) was giving Federline monthly checks in the neighborhood of $20,000, but he filed legal paperwork to request a bump, arguing that Spears had the money to spend and that his earning potential had diminished because he was too busy raising his kids and had grown too old to land dancing gigs. The deal is confidential, but Federline reportedly received thousands more each month from that point on, as well as a $100,000 lump sum to cover his legal fees.
Halle Berry — $16,000 a month
Actor and former beauty queen Halle Berry has been in court numerous times over child support payments. According to TMZ, Berry was paying ex-boyfriend and model Gabriel Aubry a whopping $16,000 a month in child support payments in 2014. She reportedly went to court to have the payments reduced to $3,800 because she was concerned Aubrey was using the cash to support his own lifestyle, including his fitness and health insurance, instead of daughter Nahla.
"She does feel that he is abusing the system and taking advantage of her," a source told People. "Halle does work hard for her money...It's understandable that she feels Gabriel should be able to make enough money to support Nahla." As of this writing, its unclear what happened with Berry's request for a reduction in support payments.
DMX — $10,000 a month
Some people are good at keeping up with child support payments; others not so much. Rapper DMX (real name Earl Simmons) would fall into the latter category. In October 2015, he was jailed for failing to make payments to ex-wife Tashera Simmons, mother of four of his kids. According to USA Today, DMX had neglected to pay his agreed upon $10,000 a month. Just a few months before that, DMX was arrested on multiple outstanding warrants, including $400,000 in back child support, reported Rolling Stone.
The "X Gon Give it to Ya" rapper has reportedly fathered 15 children. At the time of this writing, it's unclear how much he pays total in child support or how much he potentially owes his kids' mothers.
Kirk Kerkorian — $100,000 a month
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian agreed to pay a stunning $100,000 a month for child support and $10 million in back support for a daughter that's not biologically his, according to USA Today. The girl's mother, former tennis pro Lisa Bonder, reportedly admitted to faking DNA and paternity tests. In the 2010 agreement, daughter Kira would also receive $50,000 a month after she graduates high school to cover the costs of traveling, housing, food, and beauty. This scenario may seem fishy, but the casino mogul was reportedly considered the legal father of the child because he was briefly married to Bonder for 28 days in 1999. Kerkorian died in 2015 at the age of 98.
Kelly Clarkson — possibly $135,000 a month
Some people waited a lifetime for a moment like this, the one where Kelly Clarkson met talent manager (and Reba McEntire's former stepson) Brandon Blackstock in 2012. According to Us Weekly, Clarkson's miss independent days came to an end when the couple wed in 2013, and per NBC's Today, he continued to act as her manager. Daughter River was born in 2014 and son Remington followed in 2016, but in June 2020, the first American Idol winner decided it was time to break away from Blackstock.
According to ET, Clarkson filed for divorce, claiming that old chestnut, "irreconcilable differences." Per TMZ, Blackstock challenged custody, wanting to move to the couple's Montana ranch and send the kids back and forth between there and Clarkson's Los Angeles home. A judge instead gave Clarkson primary custody, but allowed visitation for Blackstock "on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekends of each month." And although Clarkson's initial filing requested the court "terminate the ability to award spousal support to Blackstock ... enforce their premarital agreement, and [require] both parties cover their own attorney's fees," (per ET), Blackstock went ahead and filed to request some hefty monthly payments from his estranged pop star/talk show host wife: $135,000 in child support, plus $301,000 in spousal support, and a tidy sum of $2 million to cover his legal fees.