Tyrese Gibson Ordered to Pay More Than $6,00,000 for Child Support and Ex's Lawyer
Actor and singer Tyrese Gibson has found himself in hot waters after being held in contempt of court and was ordered to pay nearly $636K in child support and legal fees to his ex-wife Samantha Lee Gibson. The judge, Kevin Farmer, was not pleased with Tyrese's failure to pay the court-ordered $10,000 per month in child support, which Tyrese claimed was biased and racist.
The ongoing battle between Tyrese and Samantha has been highly publicized, with Tyrese even going as far as to call on civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Martin Luther King III to show up in court and support him in his fight against the judge. "I'm not even doing this for me, I'm doing this for all of the fathers," he had mentioned before explaining how often fathers, especially Black fathers, struggle with receiving custodial rights and being treated equally to mothers in family court cases. However, no one showed up, and Tyrese was left to face the consequences of his actions alone.
In court, the judge made it clear that Tyrese had been paying child support all along, just not the $10K/month the court ordered. Instead, he had been paying $2,236/month, which was not enough to cover the amount owed to Samantha. The $237K ordered to pay back to Samantha represents the monthly difference he owes with interest.
Tanya Mitchell Graham is Gibson's lawyer who plans to file an appeal right after the judge's order is entered. She has also filed a motion for a new trial which will be heard next month. However, the due date for the first payment is May 15, and it remains to be seen whether or not Tyrese will be able to make the payment in time.
Despite Gibson's argument that the monthly amount is excessive, he was ultimately ordered to pay $237k in back child support payments and $399k for Samantha's attorney fees. Tyrese Gibson and Samantha Lee Gibson share a four-year-old daughter named Soraya. As for Samantha, her attorney Adam Gleklen has stated that all she wants is to co-parent their daughter, follow the court orders, and move forward in peace.
Samantha filed for divorce from Tyrese in September 2020 and claimed he had locked her out of the house. He has denied the accusation. The musician pointed to being "raised in broken homes with no examples of what being a husband, wife or father is' as contributing to the demise of his second marriage and claimed Black families and marriages are under attack, as per The Daily Mail. In a separate statement, Tyrese said that he met in 2015 and that they will remain the best of friends and strong co-parents.
