Remember when Brendan Fraser was hot stuff? I think that was the mid to late 90s, around the time he looked super sexy in ’92’s Encino Man (I loved that movie) and kind of peaked in 99’s The Mummy. Fraser, 44, hasn’t been working steadily, he’s no longer a box office draw and he’s done some terrible films lately to make ends meet.
In 2009 he divorced his wife, the mother of his three sons, after over 10 years of marriage. Fraser been paying a whopping $900,000 a year in child support and alimony since their split, and he recently filed to have the amount reduced. Fraser claims that his earning power has dimmed considerably and that he can no longer keep up the payments for his kids. After sitting through Furry Vengeance, I believe it. Here’s more, thanks to the NY Post:
The “Mummy’’ movies made him one of the world’s highest-paid actors, but Brendan Fraser suggests that he couldn’t land a job afterward.
His ex-wife isn’t buying it.
In Connecticut court last week, Fraser’s ex, Afton Smith, 45, accused the 44-year-old star of “fraud” for making the claim while allegedly hiding $9 million in new film contracts when they settled their divorce in February 2009.
The allegation came after Fraser went to court to try to reduce the $900,000 in alimony and child support he annually pays his 45-year-old ex-wife, insisting he no longer earns enough to justify that amount.
Court records and testimony reveal that, at the time of his split from the lesser-known actress, Fraser bizarrely claimed that he expected to make $0 — that’s zero dollars — from acting work in the future, despite an impressive résumé of high-grossing films including the three “Mummy” flicks, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “George of the Jungle.”
He later claimed he said that because he wasn’t aware of any definite future deals at the time.
Fraser acknowledged he since has acted in several movies — some of which are awaiting release.
But he cited a litany of medical issues that he says have put a “considerable” crimp on his ability to earn future big bucks.
Afton’s lawyer noted that, as of December, the actor had $24.7 million in assets.
Hearings in the legal sequel to Fraser’s nine-year marriage to Afton — with whom he has three young sons — are set to resume in Stamford Superior Court next week, with Fraser still on the witness stand.
Checking his IMDB, Fraser had only two films in 2010, one film in 2011, and nothing last year. This year he’s really working hard and has about eight movies coming up, according to IMDB. He may have just taken lousy roles out of desperation, it’s hard to tell.
I want to know what kind of medical problems he was suffering. I’m really curious to hear about that. Did he hurt his back or something? I think I found it… In 2001, while filming The Mummy Returns, Director Stephen Somers said that Fraser was injured on set. “I blew up Brendan’s knee, broke one of his ribs, and tore a disc in his back. Every once in a while, when you see a pained look on Brendan’s face, he ain’t faking it.” That might explain his weight gain. I’m just saying. I would still hit it.
As for 900k a year in child support and alimony, that sounds insane to me and like you won the Powerball. If he’s not making that kind of money anymore his ex wife should scale down a little. This isn’t a case where the kids are going to have to suffer. It’s possible he’s hiding assets though as she claims.
Candids of Fraser are from 2012. Other photos are file photos, circa 2007. Credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet
wow, that’s a lot of money.. I didn’t know he was divorced though.
Not surprised, after all the money he’s spent on hair plugs…
He is still so cute. I hope he makes a comeback.
Gosh almost 1 million per year. Damn she had a great lawyer and he had a bad one. I agree with her scaling back. But what kind of life style was and is she living. I mean even at the height of his fame he never struck me as someone making 10-20 million per film. He is not on a Forbes list so how in the world did she get that kind of money from him. Man is Tom Cruise paying that much to Katie?
Most celebs of his stature don’t live the high life. I would imagine they would be more low key, and hopefully she has not run through that money and has put some of it aside for the future.
They had a cute family
Too bad they have split but really, she did win the divorce lotto …
Well at one point he was worth over 40 million dollars. Who knows if he blew it but I wouldn’t doubt that he did try to hide some of his income from her.
wow, that’s an insane amount of money. I would say it should be reduced, his career is not where it was in the past.
OBSCENE dollars – she s/b ashamed. im sorry… but thats disgusting, not to mention ridiculous. and spare me the child-support-arithmetic lesson, btw. you’ll never convince me that it’s all about ‘the children’ cuz its not.
Agree. I don’t think alimony should even exist anymore. Child support is fair enough but if you get a house in the divorce I think that should considerably lessen the amount (the kids aren’t having to live in a dump when with the poorer parent so that’s about 3/4 of the equity argument done right there). There is absolutely no reason that an adult should continue to get paid by their ex partner. You got used to a certain lifestyle? Then get a damn job.
I agree-that kind of money is absurd. He could be paying $150k to $200k per year and his ex and the kids would be living better than the vast majority of families in the US.
I don’t know how old the kids are but once they are all in school maybe she could go out and get some kind of a job (even a PT job)? Obviously he needs to pay child support but there’s no reason the alimony train needs to chug on indefinitely.
Child support and alimony should be relative to income. If he’s making millions, even if it’s “only” a few million per year, he should be paying the primary custodial parent a lot more than $150 or $200K. It may sound like a lot, but how’d you feel as a kid if your dad made millions per year and owns over 20 million in real estate and you lived off less than 200k per year with your sibling and mother.
A woman’s vagina and uterus are never free. Gentlemen out there, think twice before you get married. It will cost you every penny you earned.
Maybe you should amend it to “think twice before you have sex”. Becoming someone’s babby daddy is also expensive.
But that’s the truth that guys like to forget, the true biological goal of sex. Then they get women pregnant and whine about it and its consequences.
Perhaps rich men should hire surrogate mothers to have children and then hire nannies to help raise them. That way they will bypass alimony and child support and losing over 50 percent of their money.
There are a lot of good dads out there who pay child support and never whine about it. I feel so sorry for the kids who find out that dad doesn’t want to pay for them because he’s busy spending that money on toys for himself and his new gf.
If you don’t want children and don’t want to provide for any, don’t have any. It’s not that complicated.
Hate to burst your bubble but pen-ses can ALSO be expensive. My ex spent over 30K of my money gambling.
I believe him when he says he’s not making the same amount of money he used to. He was huge back in the day. How about his ex scaling back the support, and get a job? Thats part of the whole co parent thing, working together to raise the kids. She will never make the same amount of money that he does. Maybe it’s time to downsize.
Exactly! I find these siuations just mind boggling. 900,000 a year JACKPOT! And the wifes reasoning is always the same. They’ve become accustomed to a certain lifestyle. Well honey, when the money stops coming in EVERYBODY needs to sacrifice their share. Whats your other option? Getting a real job and supporting your children! Not using your divorce as your main source of income.
I never understand this either. They weren’t married for a hug period of time. If you were accustomed to a small-moderate amount of money for the majority of your life and you strike it big. It should be easy to reduce back to where you were living when you were within your means.
No-one deserves 900K a year in child support. That woman’s gravy train should pull in at the last stop. Feel sorry for Brendan that he had a lousy lawyer and got saddled with that deal.
And shows how badly the family court system in this country is broken. $900,000 is more than many working Americans will see in their LIFETIMES. Revolting.
This makes me sad. He was so hot and seemed actually a sweet guy in Encino and George of the Jungle. He was very promising for a long term solid career and seemed crazy in love with his wife once. Wonder if sliding career contributed to the divorce. What went wrong?
I don’t know what went wrong but that is an insane amount of money to pay. He needs to go back to court and get this reduced. He is still a cutie and I hope he gets some more roles in films.
I know he’s a popular guess for a LOT of drug-problem blind items. Who knows, but it would make sense.
It could very well be true if he relies too much on drugs and pain killers for his supposed injuries and back pain. This kind of stuff can ruin a person’s life.
As a back/hip pain sufferer myself and being around both of these folks ages…I can personally attest to the fact that when you have pain like this you cannot work out. If he is on anti inflammatory and/or pain medications…that can also make you gain weight. The pain can make it hard to move around in general too so that might also explain why he wasn’t working for a while. I hope for his sake out of empathy that he got some kind of surgery so he could go back to work. It sucks when you are still relatively young but can’t move around like normal. If he is hiding assets as his ex claims I’m sure the judge won’t be lenient.
You’re absolutely right, Ginger. This condition affects your whole life, & just because you’re relatively young & look able-bodied, doesn’t make it so.
It does affect your capacity to work & earn, & your life changes.
I feel a bit bad for Fraser, honestly. I wouldn’t blame him for trying to hide some of his assets for himself, especially if he has these type of health problems. His career is already down the tubes and he’s not getting any younger. He also has to think about himself and the amount of money that is needed to pay for these health costs and to keep up his own lifestyle when he gets older. If these injuries did occur when filming The Mummy Returns, then it wasn’t worth it. No amount of money is worth a lifetime of pain and suffering. Those injuries are probably also the reason why he is no longer at the top of his game in terms of his looks and more importantly his health. That’s really too bad. I still like him and always thought he seemed like a decent guy.
He seems like a good. At least he’s asking for it to be reduced instead of just refusing to pay and accruing back child support. He shouldn’t be expected to pay such a large when his earning power has diminished.$900,000 is really high, I would be surprised if you told me Fraser made $1 mil last year.
He was my biggest actor crush when I was a teenager. Poor guy, must be hard to see earning power fall like that. Yes, I know it’s strange that I feel sorry for a poor millionaire…. Lol. I guess it’s the crush coming out afain
Once against proves that marrying is the worst financial decision a successful guy will ever make.
You don’t even have to marry. Look at Jeremy Renner and his newborn … kaching kaching.
No – getting divorced is what’s expensive. Marriage improves your net worth.
That’s a lot of money even for 3 kids and a wife. He wasn’t bankable in ’09.
Part of that is alimony. I highly doubt she got permanent alimony. It’s probably for a fixed amount of time, that portion.
That is crazy money. I don’t see why it was set so high in the first place. Are those 3 human children or gold & diamond statues?
It should absolutely be re-adjusted. Sounds like he was pretty nice to let it go on at that level this long. The rest of the world can see that he doesn’t have the earning power now that he used to have—can his ex-wife not see that?
Also, I think Brendan is a sweetheart & I wish him the best.
I’m with you CB- I would most definitely still hit it.
I would hit it hard!!! And I loved furry vengeance. 😉
She needs to get over it and move on. And I would hit it weight gain and all.
Brendan needs a paradigm shift. He’s not going to be able to work the hot action guy thing anymore. But he can still do comedy. And he can actually act in serious stuff when given the opportunity — check out “Gods and Monsters” and the remake of “The Quiet American”.
And NOBODY needs 900,000K a year to raise a family. I realize that it’s all based on percentage of income in most states, but the ex shouldn’t be complaining about getting something that doesn’t quite approach 7 figures….
Good GOD that is a lot of money.
How anybody would need more than maybe $100,000, depending on where they live, is baffling.
Alimony? I thought that concept was outdated.
Child Support is never outdated of course, but geesh. Who the hell set that $900,000 a year thing up? It’s obscene.
just because he didnt work for a while doesnt mean he didnt have investments etc that he made when he was earning a lot. i wouldnt assume he is broke because he has no earned income for a period. his unearned income could be impressive.
It doesn’t matter. A man should pay child support, not ex-wife support. And raising 2 kids doesn’t cost 900k/year.
It doesn’t take $225,000 a year to raise one kid either.
How long was she getting 900k a year and did she not save any of it?
I presume she got the house with most if not all the furnishings. What the hell do you need that much money for?
Exactly what came to my mind. If she had the kids the majority of the time, how did she find the time to spend all that $$. That’s a whole lotta money to find a place for, year after year.
I’m siding with BF on this. He’s been in the industry since the early 90s and nothing bad has ever come out about him, only that he’s a genuinely kind person.
As for her, she obviously raked him over the coals during the divorce and he stood by and took it.
This is why I like celebrities who maintain some sense of normality in their lives. Celebs like James McAvoy and his wife. I doubt they will have this type of problem if they decide to divorce because they never lived extravagantly to warrant a $900k per year divorce settlement. Fraser’s wife was clearly spoiled at the height of his fame and is now accustomed to living like an A-list celebrity rather than an unknown Z-list actress who is the ex-wife of a C-list actor. It is possible to still lose everything even when making millions of dollars. Very few people remain at the top of their game their entire lives. Fraser should have invested his money wisely and fought to lower the child support and alimony payments from the get-go. Put most of that money in a trust fund for his children until they reach the age of 30. Who knows what his ex-wife is spending this money on. I doubt she is spending all of it to take care of the kids.
I agree. I think child support should be put into trust. The other parent should have access to the trust but has to account for every penny to make sure it’s being used for the purpose of raising the children. I think a lot of women who want to get their hands on part of that fortune would think twice about marrying and having babies and solely looking for the wealthiest man in the room.
a good chunk of it goes to their schooling… they attend a very pricey private school, and live in one of the most expensive towns, in one of the most expensive county’s in the North East
I’m sure the schooling isn’t more than $200,000 a year, and that’s being generous. What’s she doing with the other $700,000?
you’re right, the school doesn’t cost that much per year, but you are expected to attend gathering where you are hit for further donations, also 700k will buy you a condo where they live… i know, i used to live there
But it’s not like she’ll need to buy a condo, she lives in an already paid for house.
People, he’s not broke. He has 24.8 million in assets. So he’s living a fine life. But the 900K a month has to be reduced, because his earning capacity annually has changed and will probably never be at that height. Sorry, ex-wifey, grow up and both of you come to a realistic and fair agreement instead of spending it on attorneys. A fair agreement is usually when both sides are a little dissatisfied. I have no doubt he would like to pay too little and she wants too much.
I never understood women like the ex-Mrs. Fraser who take their husbands to the cleaners in this fashion. Even in the extremely unlikely event my soon-to-be husband and I got divorced, I would do everything I can to settle these financial matters between the two of us and keep it amiable for the sake of the kids. I certainly would not go after alimony and I would hope we could come to our own private agreement of splitting child costs down the middle. Even if we broke up in the worst possible way, I just can’t see myself with any kind of desire of sticking it to him. Then again, I have my own career and would continue to have my own career in that situation. But even if I made the choice to be a stay-at-home mom I would still want to figure out a way to keep it reasonable and friendly.
Obviously, family court is there for people who need it. Same with child support. I understand there are some couples who can’t get along and need a judge to intervene and some men would sooner abandon their child rather then help out. But I do think there needs to be a reasonable cap in situations like this. There’s a difference between becoming accustomed to a certain lifestyle and knowing when to scale back and accept that when you make the decision to divorce someone whose wealthy, that lifestyle is no longer yours. To me, it sounds like she maybe married him solely for the money and women who do that are no better than scam artists. The real victims are the children who become nothing more than a vessel which the woman can use to get more money. Even if she sincerely loved him and divorced him for a legitimate reason, for the love of god, be reasonable and take a pay cut. It won’t kill you to scale back. Live in a smaller house instead of a mansion. Shop at Safeway instead of Whole Foods, shop at Sears instead of Nordstroms. You’ll still have a paid for house, great food and awesome clothes. I mean yeah, both sides need to be reasonable but I see no reason why she can’t be happy with $500k/year.
THIS. I can’t even imagine a scenario in which I’d want to ‘get as much money as I could’ from my fiance. I can’t imagine trying to take the things he’s worked for. As far as kids go- it’d have to be an equal split. I don’t want to have financial battles, or have the whole “I spend more on the kids than you do” fight.
My boyfriend pays a good (and fair) amount of child support, is solely paying for his eldest two children’s college, pays a set term of spousal support, and STILL the ex bitches and moans and wants more. Jason actually pays substantially MORE than he is required to by law (because they are his children and he wants to give them a better life and education than he had) and her lawyer keeps telling her that but she keeps threatening to drag him back into court.
How much money is enough? It gets to the point where it’s not about the kids, it’s about payback for a marriage that has failed and that’s selfish and wrong.
It seems like the older stars lived more within their means. They bought a mansion and stayed in it. They didn’t act like Nic Cage and buy a castle that is astronomical to run and buy like six homes all over the world that had to be maintained, renovated, on and on, furnished. The carrying costs per year are far too much to do this. Some of these stars don’t save enough during the height of their career or make stupid investments. The same with musicians.
This is very true. Anyone who is self employed (we are) know s that there are good years and bad. The money you make in a good year has to carry you and your family in the bad years which may be due to unforeseen circumstances. Also hearing that someone grossed x million in a year is far from the whole story. About half goes in taxes. Then there are the costs of running the business–for an actor could be agent, manager, assistant etc. during good years, you buy a big house, it is “worth 3 million” but the mortgage costs and running costs are huge. Sure, you can downsize, many do, but at that point you need an orderly reorganization rather than a last minute fire sale. Sounds like that’s what is going on here. If they were still married she would have no choice but to scale back.
If by older stars, you mean stars under the studio system, I don’t think they made nearly as much money. Probably enough for a mansion, a summer home, and a few nice cars, but they weren’t MEGA-rich.
I miss seeing him in movies. One of my favorite guilty pleasure movies is “Blast From The Past.” He was so cute and sweet back then. There’s been rumblings for years that he’s had trouble with pain and possible addictions to pain medications/booze. I’ve also heard that he suffers from depression which wouldnt be surprising if he’s dealing with chronic pain and a dead career.
Since this story broke, I’ve heard rumblings of him going to rehab for pain killer addiction and alcoholism. I wonder if that’s why he didn’t fight this from the get-go. Maybe he was in the throes of his addiction and now he’s trying to sort himself out and that means taking a look at his finances and trying to lower his payment amounts.
Yes I also loved Blast and Quiet American. I really think pain and addiction could be the issue and I hope he recovers and starts doing quality work again. He has talent. Also he was great in Old School Ties.
I wonder if he didn’t fight the initial judgement for $900,000 year because he felt guilty; I remember rumors that he was the one cheating and he broke up the marriage. Which is sad in itself; I remember reading an article where he started crying when he talked about how great his wife was and how much he loved her.
I will watch anything he’s in–I just like him as a celebrity and as an actor. Never had a huge crush on him, but he was hubba-hubba in “George of the Jungle.” Loved him as a regular on Scrubs and wish he would try to get a regular series.
As insane as $900,000/yr sounds to us all, it has been reported that one of Brendan’s boys has autism. My son’s ABA therapist charges $100/hour. Now… depending on how low functioning his son is, he could need up to 40 hours of week of ABA alone. That’s not counting Occupational/Speech Therapies or Medical interventions.
So I could see $300,000/yr to cover the child with autism… and you would have to pay the same for them all, wouldn’t you? Which child would you tell “hey… sorry… you aren’t worth what the other kid is.”
I understand what you mean.
But it could be a good way to learn that “worth” isn’t necessarily measured in dollars.
Schooling is one thing and if part of the reasoning for the high amount is having a special needs child, that’s one thing but I still can’t see how we got up to 900k, even if 1/3 of that is due to a special needs child’s education. Even if they go to the most exclusive school ever, I still can’t see costing more than 150k for three kids. Maybe 200k if one child is special needs. Also that covers alimony too, so in my opinion that should be the first area they cut from.
Also: If her accounting for child expenses is legitimate then I have no qualms about any of it. However Brendan should only be paying for legitimate, tangible expenses. If the costs for their autistic child is 300k a year but the costs for the other two come out to 100k per child then he should only pay 500k in child support.
while I can see where you are coming from with that, my son is also autistic and we have to pay privately for therapy and we manage on an income far smaller than that.
It would be cool, just once, to hear about a wife who offered to lower the child support to help her ex through a tight period. I know a woman who did that and it helped their relationship and his relationship with the kids
I feel kind of sad reading all of this. They were married for 10+ years, had 3 kids and he made millions a year for quite some time. $900K isn’t outrageous for someone who is a multi-millionare – certainly wasn’t 50%. Since he’s been pretty much off the blockbuster grid for such a long time it’s reasonable to consider reducing the amount … but it shouldn’t be because she doesn’t “need” that much or that she should just go to work. Should the kids be forced into daycare even though Daddy has many millions? Should they live a dramatically different life with Mom than with Dad? I don’t know the details of the divorce nor do I know the Ex … but I feel sad that so many people just assume she’s a gold digging villian 🙁 I know too many women who were left out to dry when their husbands buggered off … I guess I jump up to defend the one with the less power or earning potential.
I understand what you are saying. However, there is no way you can justify to me that 900k is necessary, even if she accustomed to a certain lifestyle. There is no reason for her to get that much money each year, especially since Brendan’s earning potential has fallen heavily in the last 10 years. Yes, his kids and ex deserve their share but if he is worth 24mil in the present day that means there will only less than half of it left when his youngest turns 18 and that’s on top of the amount she already took at the time of the divorce (he was worth $44 million when she filed you do the math). If he also has back issues, that amount could cut into long term medical treatment and pain management. Aside from the fact it’s money HE earned, not her. I could understand if she was Tom Cruise’s or George Clooney’s ex. But Brendan Fraser? No way. Even if the kids go to the best schools and everything they should still be fine if that amount is cut in half and his ex can support herself with what she walked away with in the divorce.
I get what you are saying Jollytr and I’ll take it a step further:
One of the principle concepts behind alimony and child support is that it’s not all ‘his money’. When you get married you enter a partnership and if one partner agrees to make sacrifices like taking on the bulk of childcare responsibilities while the other one works, that partner shouldn’t get left holding the bag when the marriage fails.
And what’s wrong with any parent devoting a signficant amount of his or her time AND money towards the raising of his or her children?
I agree, and I’ll take it a step farther: Marriage is a partnership and the concept behind alimony/child support is that it isn’t HIS money. If one partner agrees to shoulder most of the childcare responsibilities so the other partner can focus on career then that partner (and the kids) shouldn’t be left holding the bag when the marriage fails.
Uh..does SHE work for living? I mean, besides appearing to be a gold digging ex-wife. And how much is she REALLY spending to raise these kids? I know many families with 3 or more kids, and they raise them on far less than $900K. The kids don’t lack in any way for anything.
Seriously, just HOW MUCH money is really necessary for her to have a comfortable lifestyle? College funds can be set up separately, if that’s the concern, but I doubt she’s feeding them Kobe beef, caviar, and Dom at every meal. I would LOVE to see her list of expenses and just how much is really needed.
I’m sorry but I think she and their kids can live comfortably on less than 900K a year. Families of four do it all the time. And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Brendan Fraser isn’t working that much anymore. He doesn’t seem to be trying to shirk his responsibilities so much as make his part reasonable. 900K ain’t reasonable! Here’s a question: What is SHE doing to contribute to her children’s lifestyle. Does SHE have a job?? If I were the Judge I would have her get a job to help make up the difference.
My sophomore year of college (’99) I studied abroad in London. One evening, several friends and I just happened to be in Leicester Square when we came upon the red carpet for the ‘Gods and Monsters’ premiere. The movie had ended and the celebrities were coming out. It was raining and miserable, and everyone was rushing straight to their cars, but Brendan Fraser turned up his collar and came over to the barrier to sign autographs, take pictures, and talk to every single person there, myself included. He was the only person from the premiere who did this.
As a weird side note, Ian McKellen brought Monica Lewinsky as his date, which as Americans was hilarious to us.
I don’t think anyone should need $900k a year to raise 3 children. I don’t care who you are. It should be reduced at the very least to 500k. IMO though, 200k would be best or less.
I feel kind of sorry for him 🙁
That’s a lot of money for child support.
Outrageous, no matter who you are. Even with a special needs child, it does not cost you $900K to raise two kids. The wife is being unreasonable and I can’t even believe $900K in child support/alimony was granted in the first place. She definitely sounds like a bitter, resentful, gold digging ex wife. Learn to scale back and downsize, honey. It might also help if you got a job and worked for a living, instead of relying on divorce money to maintain your ridiculous standard of living.
His income surely has lowered, so I thinkit’s fair to reduce support. She may need to change her lifestyle a bit, but them’s the brakes.
If he is struggling due to injuries, I really feel for him, that’s rough. Given all the money those movies made and his earning potential at that time, I wonder if they gave him any sort of settlement for all of the injuries sustained on that job.
I have a soft spot for Brendan. He’s like the nice and funny version of the London brothers (Jason/Jeremy). He’s one of the very few good-looking actors who has comedic timing. Some of my favorite films when I was a kid starred Brendan – School Ties, Encino Man, Airheads, the one with Joe Pesci, George of the Jungle and Mummy series. I though he won a substantial amount from that lawsuit against “Crash”. It’s sad to see he has fallen on hard times. I’m also shocked to learn he has separated with Afton. They look so sweet when the couple visited our town.
It always irks me when I see the phrase “A man should pay for his kids” like they are now some sort of utility bill.
And it equally irks me when a woman who married a rich man thinks that when the marriage is over she’s entitled to the same life-style that she had before and that HE earned.
I get that a man should be responsible for his kids but he should SHARE that responsibility! She needs to work if she doesn’t. And hopefully he’s spending time with them and not just sending his money.
Child support is one thing but 900K??? That’s nuts… The only time I think that the wife (or partner or husband or whatever) should get a *temporary* financial bonus like that is if:
A. Their partner was unfaithful, neglectful, dangerously psychologically unstable or abusive or something else that resulted in a kind of breach of the initial marital agreement.
B. They, as a team, made the decision that she/he focus on something other than her/his own career for an extended period of time (to raise children or to help him pursue his etc)
The money should be assistance to help the other party get back on their own feet because, if they were committed to the marriage, they might have been initially unprepared for a downfall or betrayal or whatever.
Later – As for the kids seeing Dad party like a Rockstar (he earned his wages and can do what he wants with them!) while Mom works for her wages and can do the same – uh. That is a life lesson. Mom taking a check in the mail and rarely working for her own wages just teaches the kids a false sense of entitlement and to take advantage of other people.
Ugh.
I’m in the ‘how much money does it take to bring up 3 kids’ camp here. My brother’s ex has practically beggared him with her demands for more and more money, despite the fact that he’s now approaching 50, has health problems, and isn’t fit to work any more. Women like that make me ashamed to be female, frankly. They are parasites. Real women support themselves. And look for *reasonable* child support from the father(s) of their children. And I don’t hear of any health problems that make the ex Mrs Fraser unable to work? And should Mr Fraser ever need a bosom to cry on, mine is available!
Ahhh romance and true love are so heart warming!
I just don’t understand what she would be doing with almost $19k PER WEEK?? She lives in an already paid for house, drives an already paid for car. I doubt schooling costs more than $50K/kid a year, regardless of where you live. She just seems like the bitter ex wife, especially with the whole ‘they’re your kids you need to provide for them.’ Raising kids is 50/50 so if she doesn’t have a job, maybe she should get one. It just doesn’t make sense how she gets 900k a year and STILL would take him to court for more. We get it, you’re pissed and hurt but don’t ruin the mans life.
I’m always fascinated when the court system awards these huge payments for actors or sports stars, since the income doesn’t roll in like that in perpetuity. Maybe going back to court to have the payments adjusted is just how the system works when you hit that pay scale?