Melissa with her current wife, Linda Wallem
Melissa Etheridge fought tooth and nail not to give her ex wife, Tammy Lynn Michaels, the mother of her now 9 year-old twins, any child support. She was never legally married to Tammy due to the fact that same sex marriage was not legal in their state until late in their relationship. Melissa tried to use that against Tammy in their settlement proceedings because of course she did. She’s since re-married, to Linda Wallem, who was a mutual friend when she was with Tammy. Tammy alleged in one of her infamous incoherent blog posts that Melissa cheated on her with Linda.
Tammy gave up her career as an actress to raise their kids. In the wake of the divorce, she blogged about the fact that she couldn’t afford to live in their home and support the children without any money coming in from multi-millionaire Melissa. Eventually she got $23k a month, which sounds like a lot to me but to someone living that kind of lifestyle with Melissa it’s relative. According to Star Melissa, who has a net worth of $25 million, is now $10k behind on her child support payments. I guess Tammy no longer blogs about it when Melissa misses a payment and just tells Star Magazine.
An insider reveals to Star that [Melissa Etheridge] is over $10,000 behind on child-support payments for their 9 year-old twins!…
The women have each remarried and maintained a fragile truce while successfully co-parenting their son, Miller, and daughter, Johnny Rose. But they may be gearing up for another legal war now that Melissa is welshing on their agreement.
“I just don’t have it,” Melissa allegedly confided to a source, who explained that [Melissa] is in dire financial straits: “Melissa has invested a lot of her money in things that didn’t turn a profit, and she just expects Tammy and their kids to be patient while she sorts it all out.”
Melissa dumped cash into a Santa Cruz winery that sells cannabis-infused products for a “full-body buzz,” but the business’ lackluster profits have left her dazed and confused, as has her downhill career – the woman who once packed arenas is now taking cruise-ship gigs! But she still seems to be living high on the hog with her new wife, TV producer Linda Wallem. The pair reside in a $5.1 million mansion in L.A.’s swanky Hidden Hills enclave and recently added a home recording studio to their property.
“From Tammy’s point of view, Melissa has money for the things she wants,” gripes the tipster. “She can’t understand why their kids aren’t one of those priorities.”
[From Star Magazine, print edition]
Yes this source is Tammy or else why wouldn’t it have listed the fact that her child support is $23k a month? $10k in missed payments is less than half that, but it’s cheap of Melissa to skimp like that, she needs to pay her child support like everyone else. Also, I didn’t know that Tammy remarried, that’s nice. I’m team no one. I thought Melissa treated Tammy horribly, but I also got tired of Tammy airing all of their dirty laundry. At least Tammy is letting Star talk for her and I no longer have to read her confusing blog to figure out what she’s trying to say.
photos credit: WENN.com
She objected to the word “Brave”.. how does she feel about the word “DEAD BEAT”
Pay for your kids. Gosh everything I read about this woman is awful. Pay for your kids, cheap monster. She’s like a female MRA
Melissa definitely comes across as a horrible person. I don’t miss hearing about her in the media.
I know, I just can’t imagine NOT caring what people think as much as she apparently does (does not?). Especially when her wealth is known
I feel bad for those kids. One parent doesn’t seem to care or want to support them, and the other airs everything out publicly.
If Melissa’s income has drastically changed, then they should go back to court. Otherwise, pay up.
ME turned out to be such a disappointing human.
She lives in a $5.1 million dollar home? She *just* ADDED a sound studio? But she’s only doing gigs on cruise ships? and can’t afford $23K for her kids?
Team kids. This is pretty awful.
Instead of going to the Star, Tammy should just go straight to court and let the courts sort this out.
I’m so sick is these rich and famous people who have more money than most of us could ever hope to have complain about being poor, and the first thing they cut out is paying for their commitments to their children! Why not downsize your 5 million dollar house if you’re low on funds!!! It’s so irritating!
Unfortunately, I don’t think this is just a rich and famous problem. It’s surprising how many people from any and every socio-economic level will cut-off money to support their kids before sacrificing their lifestyle.
but she didn’t want to pay for her kids in the first place! read up on her, she treats all her exes like GARBAGE
It doesn’t cost 23k a month to raise two kids. I feel for Melissa here. Awarding an ex that amount of money, no matter what your net worth, is extortion.
The money wasn’t “awarded to the ex.” It’s child support. For the children. The children that Melissa apparently cooperated in producing when it was convenient for her to do so, and then tried to disavow when she didn’t want anything else to do with their other mom. Melissa is such a disgusting, reprehensible person. I’m not surprised that no one wants to pay money to go to her concerts any more.
Maybe not in most places, but LA (at least the part they inhabit) is a different world. That works out to $276K a year…that’s a very good income most places in the US, but in LA? Not so much. I’m sure they send their kids to private school…a good chunk of the money would be eaten up just by that. She could downsize, sure, but it’s hardly fair to the kids to spend time at Melissa’s mansion in the hills and then go home to a 2 bedroom apartment in north Hollywood (o have no idea if that’s where either of them live, I’m just using those as an example to illustrate the potential disparity).
That amount was decided on by the court, based on Melissa’s monthly income of over $170,000. It’s less than 15% of her income, and it was both child support for 2 kids and spousal support, which I think was fair as her ex stopped working to raise the kids they both wanted.
Always with this dumb ass argument.
Two things: no one has to have kid, and It’s not “extortion” to pay for the children that YOU WILLINGLY brought into the world. any decent parent wouldn’t think or say that about their kids. GTFO.
I wonder if she’s also behind on payments for her first set of kids with Julie Cypher?
At least one of those kids is over 18 now, if not both. Plus she doesn’t seem to have the same contentious relationship with their mother.
Welp. I guess she better call carnival and see if they’re hiring.
What a hyprocrite.
One thing I’ll give Tammy is that she might have gotten some money from Star (probably a pittance) by being the source maybe that was her motive . Anyway Melissa is an awful person.
What a shite of a parent. So self-centered. The kids will carry an emotional burden ( my mom doesn’t love me enough to help me) for a long time.
Question: was the $23K all child support or was that alimony as well? The alimony would have stopped when Tammy got remarried. The $10K could just be child support.
You’re right, it also included spousal support, which yes, probably ends upon remarrying.
Completely agree – in most cases upon remarriage the financial support stops.
MORESO I know a lot of damn super wealthy folks that sy they are broke, and celebs are always comped tons of stuff for free. . Who did Tammy remarry??? I had no idea. She used to bartender I believe at Henrietta’s in NYC.
Also who does Etheridge now look like she’s morphing into Marlee Maitlin???
Completely agree – in most cases upon remarriage the financial support stops.
MORESO I know a lot of damn super wealthy folks that sy they are broke, and celebs are always comped tons of stuff for free. . Who did Tammy remarry??? I had no idea. She used to bartend I believe at Henrietta’s in NYC.
Also who does Etheridge now look like she’s morphing into Marlee Maitlin??? I love Marlee…
What guy did Cypher also marry? I can’t keep up with this crew lol