Gilbert Arenas recently opened up about his battle with child support and just how these celebrity cases get so massive. We are used to hearing stories in the news of parents getting thousands a month after splitting from their famous spouses. Arenas was no different, forced to hand over tons of money following him and Laura Govan going their separate ways. Let’s dive into what happened with him and how it mirrors the stories of countless others.
Gilbert Arenas and Laura Govan became a couple in 2002 while he was still playing for the Golden State Warriors. The pair would go on to get engaged and have a total of four children throughout their union. Things came to an end in January of 2015 and the former couple has been known for nothing but drama ever since.
All of the rumors aside, one thing that was true is that Govan initially requested $244,000 a month from Arenas following their split. This figure was calculated based off his contract at the time. according to Arenas, that figure was supposed to cover the cost of cars, Govan’s house and nanny’s. Instead, the judge order the pair to share joint custody, instead only granting Govan $10k a month.
According to Gilbert, this devastated Govan and is the reason why she began so my problems with him in the media. Prior to this decision, she was living her best life and was not worried about him. Unfortunately, after she realized she would not be pocketing a quarter million a month, things got even more toxic between her and Arenas. “When I won joint custody, in her world, ‘shit him and the kids continue their same lives,” said Arenas, commenting that she was now on the ousts.
Divorce.net talks about how child support is calculated under California guidelines. This calculation is described as “complex” and factors in the parents income, how much time they each spend with the child and any tax deductions available to them. Gilbert may have dodge a bullet, but he is not the only celebrity who has been put through the ringer in a child support case. Unfortunately a lot of others have too, with not so favorable results.
Fellow athlete Michael Stahan was not as lucky. Follow his split from second wife Jean Muggli, he was ordered to pay over $18,000 a month in child support and spousal support. While he and his team were able to get it down to around $13k, this was still a large figure. This is in addition to the $15 million he was order to pay in the settlement as well as the legal fees Muggli asked him to cover.
MLB legend Alex Rodriguez also got the short end of the stick in his divorce settlement. Following his split with Cynthia Scurtis in 2008, A Rod was forced to hand over $115k in both spousal support and child support a month! The former baseball star does not make the same about of money as he used to, and in 2018 took Scurtis to court to see if they could lower the amount.
Nas was recently asked to up his spousal and child support payments after it was determined that he was making more money after his income was assessed. Nas was famously married to “Milkshake” singer Kelis, but the pair separated shortly before the birth of their son Knight. Nas is now forking over $51k, a $10k increase from the $40k he had been paying all this time. This means Kelis is making over $600,000 a year in child support and spousal support.
