Late last month, Oksana Grigorieva filed a child support enforcement action against Mel Gibson in the midst of their very public child custody dispute over their one-year-old daughter. Gibson had been ordered to pay $20,000 a month in child support but had not done so for three months and was in arrears by $60,000.
This week the family court ordered Gibson to pay the $60,000 in back child support. Grigorieva had also filed a motion to end Gibson’s overnight visitation with the child, claiming that she was worried about Gibson’s temper and that he was leaving the girl with a nanny most of the time. The judge declined to rule immediately on Grigorieva’s visitation motion. He is expected to make a decision late this year or early in 2011.
Gibson’s Nonpayment of the Child Support Was Based on a Legal Question, Not Trouble Paying
Some observers had speculated that Gibson might be having trouble paying the $20,000 per month in child support because the embarrassing public dispute had hurt his career. However, it appears that was not the case.
According to a report in PEOPLE magazine, Gibson had delayed making the payments because his attorneys wanted to clarify whether the $6,000 per month he pays for Grigorieva’s Los Angeles home could be deducted from the monthly child support amount. Gibson’s daughter lives in the house along with Grigorieva and Grigorieva’s mother.
In the November 10 hearing, the family court judge denied Gibson’s request to deduct Grigorieva’s housing allowance from his child support. Neither Gibson nor his attorney made any comment to reporters. Grigorieva also had no comment.
Source: PEOPLE, “Mel Gibson, Oksana Grigorieva Argue Child Support and Visitation in Family Court,” Howard Breuer, November 10, 2010
