The legal system is always a difficult and emotional thing for any person to have to navigate. Still, emotions are always going to run highest in family court when the ends of marriages and the welfare of children is the topic of discussion. Tyrese Gibson has been spending a significant portion of his time dealing with child support issues in an Atlanta courtroom in recent months, fighting a judge’s order because, according to him, he’s taking a stand on behalf of all fathers.
Gibson was recently ordered by an Atlanta judge to pay $636,000, with $237,000 set to go to his ex-wife to cover back child support, and the balance will pay for her attorney’s fees. Tyrese was also held in contempt of court for refusing to pay a $10,000-a-month child support judgment put in place last August, which was backdated to September 2020. Speaking with TMZ, Gibson explained that the reason he’s fighting the payments is not because he can’t pay them but because he thinks they are unfair. Gibson said…
It’s not about me. What just happened today happens everyday in the family law court system. Father have no rights period. So the bigger the ass whoopin that I get in court, the more it’s going to shed light on what has been happening since the beginning of time. This is not about me. I will never not take care of my daughters, whether I’m with their mother or not. I will never not. But it’s not ok to call us deadbeat dads when we’re hustling, grinding, traveling, doing whatever it takes to put food on the table and take care of our families– which will cause us naturally to be physically away from our kids. And then that get used against us in court because the mother may be more available than you.
Tyrese apparently feels that he’s being asked to pay more than he should and believes that by continuing the fight the ruling against him, he will draw attention to the way he is being treated unfairly. He will apparently be expected to pay the amount by May 15, but it sounds like he’ll be appealing that ruling and may continue to fight.
While Gibson says he has the money to pay the judgment, it sounds like the actor's argument is that during the period of the support payments in question, he wasn’t making money due to being out of work because of the global pandemic or simply not having any active film projects. Gibson feels that being asked to pay that much during that period is an abuse of power on the part of the judge. He continued…
And then when you don’t have a job, when you’re struggling and trying to pull it together independent of a pandemic we get emasculated when we’re at home and we’re out of a job. So at the end of the day we just pulled out the biggest light imaginable on him, his conduct, him literally making up things on the fly. What he did as a sitting judge is literally abuse of power, egregious, and all of the above.
Tyrese certainly isn’t the first father to feel that he’s being treated unfairly by the court system, other celebrities have attempted to “shine a light” on perceived injustice, but it rarely amounts to much. While this certainly doesn’t appear to be the end, as Tyrese vows to continue fighting, it’s unlikely he will accomplish all his goals.
Child support and child custody is frequently a sticking point when couples split up. The ongoing divorce of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt which has still not concluded is largely due to custody problems. Child support is the current focus of the separation of Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde, who first fought over where such decisions would be made before getting to the actual topic of support. Wilde claims that Sudeikis has not been paying his share since their split.
