By Martie Bowser | Yahoo News
Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry has been engulfed in a child support battle since 2014. She has two children, Nahla, 13, and Maceo, 7. She is court-ordered to pay monthly support to the fathers of both of her children. While the monthly amount for both orders is astronomical, Berry received some reprieve. A slight relief came when her monthly payment to her ex, Gabriel Aubry, was reduced from $16,000 to $8,000.
The 55-year-old-actress and 44-year-old model began dating in 2006. They welcomed their daughter two years later but split in 2018. According to E! News, the custody battle got sticky in 2012 after Aubry blocked Berry’s request for courts to allow her to relocate to France with Nahla and then-fiancé Olivier Martinez.
The original $16,000 monthly payment was based on Berry’s 2012 income. E! News states court documents reported the X-Men star’s income as $4.7 million during the first nine months of 2012. This was a major difference compared to Aubry’s income of $192,921.
The original ruling also included the actress paying retroactive support totaling $115,000 and $300,000 for Aubry’s legal fees. The couple received 50-50 joint custody. Berry was also responsible for their daughter’s private school tuition.
Berry begrudgingly paid the support without contest for more than eight years until she vocalized her anger in 2021.
Berry opened up about her battle with child support and what she felt was “extortion.”
It started with an Instagram post in Feb. 2021 using a graphic stating, “Women don’t owe you sh*t.”
She captioned the post, “& that’s on mary had a little lamb.”
Berry replied to followers in the comment section, expressing her feelings about the biases of child support.
“Berry raises an interesting argument. How many ponies does a child really need right? The spirit behind these types of astronomical child support awards is to mitigate the sharp contrast in the child’s standard of living between households – the “castle to shack” dilemma so to speak. But at some point, after the child’s reasonable needs have been more than satisfied, the surplus of child support could very well just feel like extortion or spousal maintenance for the other parent (married or not).”
Kaine Fisher, Rose Law Group partner and family law director
