Sonni Pacheco: ‘I do not receive $30,000 in monthly child support’

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I feel like this story didn’t get the attention it deserved earlier this week: Jeremy Renner has already filed court documents to reduce his child support payments to his ex Sonni Pacheco. Renner wants his support payments reduced from $30K to $11K a month. It was just the latest in a multi-year back-and-forth legal fight over financial support and custody. There have been times when their fight has been very nasty and very public, and times when they seemed to be co-parenting reasonably well. Everything kind of re-exploded last fall when Sonni asked for sole custody of their daughter Ava.

In any case, they still share custody and Renner has been paying her $30K a month because he had a lot of money coming in from his acting career and his side-projects. The problem is the economy has crashed and Renner thinks he won’t have much money coming in this year. But… the problem with that is we’re only three weeks into the financial crash aspect of the pandemic, and he looked cheap and opportunistic to “use” the pandemic as an excuse to be a deadbeat and cheap out on his child support requirements. And now Sonni is speaking:

Avengers star Jeremy Renner’s ex-wife has clapped back after he asked a judge to reduce his child support payments because of coronavirus. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Sonni Pacheco slammed her ex for ‘yet another attempt to reduce funds I rely on to provide for our child.’

Speaking to DailyMail.com, Pacheco hit back at her ex’s ‘lies’ and said she was only trying to protect her daughter after ‘seven years of hell’ in a relationship with Renner.

‘It is very disheartening that in a time of global crisis there is yet another attempt to reduce funds I rely on to provide for our child,’ the model and actress said, adding that Renner had ‘greatly exaggerated’ the amount of income he paid Pacheco. ‘I think it’s time after seven years of hell, I start addressing the lies myself. First, I do not receive $30,000 in monthly child support. Second, all of my savings and Ava’s savings have been drained due to lawyer fees, as my concerns for Ava’s safety have been an ongoing battle for years now. I have, and will always choose to protect Ava when I find out about disturbing behavior exhibited by her father at his homes that put her in danger. Last but not least, I am choosing love and to continue to wish him the best and a healthy safe life.’

[From The Daily Mail]

From my understanding, outlets like TMZ and People Magazine are getting the bulk of their information from court filings and statements from Sonni and Jeremy’s lawyers. It’s possible that this information is massaged by individual camps, and we definitely know that TMZ acts as Hollywood’s Men’s Rights Advocacy Group. My point is that it’s possible that Renner had it spread around that he was paying his ex $30K a month but that Sonni wasn’t actually receiving that. And… legal fees are a headache. I don’t know. I didn’t need Sonni to come out and say that Renner is cheap and gross. I already thought that.

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35 Responses to “Sonni Pacheco: ‘I do not receive $30,000 in monthly child support’”

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  1. lucy2 says:

    He’s gross for using this situation to benefit himself. If he really does see a dramatic loss in earnings, deal with it in a while, not RIGHT NOW. He’s a Marvel guy and has other side businesses too, no way he’s broke right now.

    • Jellybean says:

      I am sure it will go to the end of a very long list and get dealt was after the crisis. It is a crass thing to do, but he does have the right to ask, since he does pay more when he earns more and I doubt the shut down will impact her income outside of child support. I suspect this was going to happen soon anyway, because he was in the middle of a franchise frenzy when the amounts were set. He was probably just waiting for his final Marvel commitments to play out.

      • Yvette says:

        The Marvel Avengers franchise is not the only thing Renner has going. He averages 2 -3 films a year and has since the mid-00’s. His per film salary most likely increased after his Hurt Locker film and let us not forget that he also starred in two Mission Impossible films during his stint in the Avengers franchise. He has another full-time business that he runs with his live-in business partner and hatchet man. I can’t believe he is so financially compromised after such a short time into this crisis that he has to cut his daughter’s child support.

      • Anonymouse says:

        Yvette, how/why do you know so much about him?

      • Jellybean says:

        Yvette, his business partner is long gone from his home and his life too – he hasn’t been seen or heard from for nearly a year. There is no renovation business, the house under construction on instagram is a guest house for his home in the mountains in Nevada, which legally is his main residence. Outside the franchises he is contracted to do he has been doing less and less acting, just smaller roles, and he has said he will not take work that takes him too far from Ava. I suspect he has invested all his spare money so that he can pretty much retire and stay at home and make music in his home music studio when Ava is with her mum. I am not saying he wont take acting roles, but only if it takes his fancy or it is filming in LA. He seems to have been working on this plan for at least 5 years. He only did Arrival because Amy Adams asked him to, Taylor Sheridan admits he had to drive across 2 states and force him to read the script before he agreed to do Wind River, because he didn’t want to work away . He seems to have done Tag because MI6, which he was contractually required to be available for, was delayed and he had already arranged to be working away. He did Arctic Dogs because he wanted to a cartoon for Ava and he recorded it in LA. So I think the crisis has just brought his plan forward: lower income, more time at home and consequently adequate but cheaper child support. Plus, if he has organised to live off investments the stock market crash may well have compromised him financially and selling his investments now to pay bills to would be a huge mistake.

      • Anna says:

        “ I suspect he has invested all his spare money so that he can pretty much retire and stay at home and make music in his home music studio when Ava is with her mum. I am not saying he wont take acting roles, but only if it takes his fancy or it is filming in LA.”

        But…I mean, working when you want to isn’t a right. It’s a privilege. And it’s certainly not justification for paying less in child support. He has a kid to provide for. Yeah, 30k sounds insane to most of us, but they live in LA. It’s not really good enough to say “I want to pay less child support so I can work less.” If he can afford to work less and pay his child support, great. If not, time to get back out there. The stock market has nothing to do with it.

      • Jellybean says:

        But why? Why does Sonni have the privilege of not working, but Renner doesn’t have the same privilege, even though he has spent many years putting himself in the position where he can give his child a comfortable life without having to work? The kid currently lives in lovely homes with both parents, she goes to the very good local state school, Renner pays all her medical bills and now Sonni has spent Ava’s educational fund I assume he will pay all her college fees too. If he can spend more time at home with his daughter and he can earn enough money to maintain the quality of life she now has, why should he be forced to go away from home and work? He will just be making more and it will have no impact of the child’s life, except she will spend less time with her father. Ava should have an equivalent lifestyle with both parents, is it really just about money? Isn’t it more important that she can come home to her dad after school, just like she comes home to her mum? If Sonni has been spending $11k of the $30K on Ava, shouldn’t Renner be allowed to moderate his lifestyle as long as he can still give her the $11K? Should he be forced to keep working, just so Sonni can build up savings for herself?

  2. L4frimaire says:

    Anyone who gives an exclusive interview to the Daily Fail is getting a check from them. These two are messy. Like some of Renner’s roles as an actor but he sounds like a total head case.

    • Sunshine says:

      Exactly. Who gives interviews to the Fail? They are both messy.

    • Erinn says:

      The thing is the Fail is so predatory. I believe her when she says most of their funds have been going towards legal fees. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an act of desperation and she couldn’t pass on the money.

  3. Lightpurple says:

    Ava’s savings have been drained due to legal fees? That argument isn’t going to help her. Ava’s savings shouldn’t have been touched.

    • BaronSamedi says:

      Exactly. Also even she doesn’t get 30K, 11K still sounds like a shitton of money and why does she rely on that money to provide for her daughter. Nothing is stopping her from working. Both look shady but honestly I side-eye women who basically live off the child-support of their wealthy baby-daddies.

      • Erinn says:

        Regardless of your personal feelings, the child has a right to a comparable lifestyle in her homes. Even if she was working around the clock, chances are she’d be NOWHERE near Renner’s income / lifestyle and and he’d still be paying anyway.

        You also have to look at things like the cost of preschool and things like that fir famous people’s kids – you can’t just stick this kid in the local boys and girls club or the YMCA for preschool. Her father is super famous, and it just wouldn’t be safe.

        There’s just zero reason for a man (or woman) to be worth 50 million and for the kid to be living a normal lower – middle class lifestyle. No it’s not cruel or anything, but it’s ridiculous given the earnings of her father. He chose to have the child at his level of fame – he has to pay up.

    • Jellybean says:

      I think she is talking without the guidance of a lawyer. I suspect that in all these attempts to show he was endangering the child, she lost in court. She might be giving him the opportunity to state that fact publicly, which would be useful when people believe everything they read and all you need is an accusation to destroy someone’s career.

    • Metoo says:

      That was my take away, why are you using your child’s funds! That is such a NO! In my mind

  4. Jssssss says:

    I’ve never commented before and I hate Jeremy Renner so absolutely do not want to defend him but I am a family law lawyer—child support is tied to income and timeshare with child. If he has less income, he pays less support. he has to file now to preserve retroactivity of the request. I have clients getting furloughed or fired. I have to file requests to modify spousal and child support right now too. It’s not fun and certainly looks awful but these are unprecedented times for the legal world and all of us.

  5. Lisa says:

    They are both very messy too bad an innocent child is in the middle.

  6. Jellybean says:

    Apparently, he pays her $13K a month and a yearly amount on top. She is careful to say her monthly child support is not $30K, but I suspect she has been getting an average of $30k a month, so it is just word play.In good years he also pays into an account for Ava which, was reported, that Sonni can use to pay her half of any education costs Ava might have, but the balance of which was to go to Ava when she comes of age. Sonni says that she has drained Ava’s savings, so I assume that was why he was asking for his business managers to be put in charge of Ava’s account.

    • Mireille says:

      You know I was reading your comments on the other Renner post and a lot of what you’re saying makes a lot of sense. I know it’s not the popular opinion around here, but I question her motives. She went to the Daily Mail. Her daughter’s savings has been drained? Her claims against Renner and her quest for sole custody went nowhere with the courts. And I wonder why? I feel for the daughter — don’t really care for either parent. And I’m hoping court system does right by Ava.

      • Jellybean says:

        Thank you! I know I am obsessive about this, but I have somehow ended up choosing one story to watch carefully over a period of years and it is just amazing to see how many errors are made and how quickly a sort of folk law builds up online, Stories are often wrong at the start and it only gets worse as the story is passed from site to site. A classic example is that Sonni is 28. Have a look, if a story mentions her age it will be 28. She isn’t 28, she is 32. A mistake was made 7 years ago by one site and nobody checked. It sounds harmless, but it suggests that she was 21 when she gave birth, which suggests she may have been underage when they met, which means that people believed the worst when when Sonni’s witness said there were girls at his house that looked as though they could be underage. Despite the publicity and the court case, that accusation died a death, but it doesn’t matter, because it is out there and people will pull up the stories, forget the outcome and use it as evidence to call him a pedophile. I know nothing about any other stories, I haven’t a clue what i going on with Harry and Meghan, but watching one story and seeing it develop has made me vary wary. The good news is that everything I have come across suggests that Ava is a very happy, well adjusted girl who loves her parents very much and is being raised in a happy environment with lots of cousins and friends running around.

  7. K-Peace says:

    With all the money he has, he can certainly afford to pay Sonni the $30,000/month!—Though it sounds like the amount is actually even less than that. He is so gross. Like, he really makes my skin crawl, and always has; i don’t even like seeing a photo of him. Seriously creepy person.

    • Jellybean says:

      Maybe he could pay beyond what his income requires, but should he have to? Also, it appears that she has spent a fortune trying and failing to get sole custody. Maybe he just wants it to stop? She can still call out child services if she thinks the child is in danger, but she will have to accept what they say. The case last year, even if it was all true, should never have been filed unsealed. There were accusations of child abuse in there that were several years old, that had been investigated and he had been cleared. That was never going to help her case, but the details would inevitably be leaked and it would damage him, which I assume was the plan, and one day the kid will read about it, if she hasn’t already or maybe her friends have read it and told her. That all needs to stop.

    • BL says:

      K-Peace,
      I agree…he is repulsive and a total douchelord

  8. Christina says:

    If Ava is really in danger in his house, she needs to not go to the media. She needs to stay quiet and not address anything if she wants to put Ava first. I think that Renner is unstable, but she is selfish and not acting in Ava’s best interests.

    You don’t need a high powered from to win in family law court. You need a good custody evaluator, a good lawyer who knows how to file documents, integrity, and a willingness to put yourself last after your child. I’ve lost a lot of respect for her for going to the Daily Mail. What the public thinks has nothing to do with Ava’s safety, and the judge will notice that.

    • Kitkatdanke says:

      I think she needs to go to the media because it is functionally a paper trail. If something happened to Ava, and she had kept previous incidents secret, that would be horrible.

      I admit to being skeptical of this woman but I do not feel that way anymore – even if her original intentions were gold digging. I feel truly bad for her, this is beyond a messy divorce. She has many witnesses for her claims.

      Yes 30k is a lot, but she needs a lawyer to fight for her, given the seriousness. Also so many people don’t take into consideration maintaining lifestyle – of course a kid will favor a much wealthier parent to one that makes 40k a year.

      • Jellybean says:

        It went to court early in November. It is done.They still have 50:50 custody. Plus, she doesn’t need a paper trial because it seems she has been calling child services on him on a regular basis. They will have all her claims and evidence.

      • Christina says:

        She needs a lawyer, but not a big, high-powered Hollywood firm. She needs someone experienced in child custody and she needs to do what the lawyer says. Judges don’t like it when parents try to influence people by going to the media. And the best way to protect Ava is if Ava has a court appointed lawyer who works only for Ava, someone who will not side with one parent or the other. That’s how my kid was saved in a California custody battle with my abusive ex. Some of the things Pacheco described of Renner are similar to things my ex did that I couldn’t prove, but people who are truly abusive to children are proven abusive because court appointed attorneys and psychologists know what psychologically and/or physical abused kids are like.

        My ex worked to ruin my reputation, and it worked for a while, but I was willing to do whatever the court wanted because she was my baby, an innocent. She deserved protection. I’m an adult, and my ex and I didn’t matter. Nobody believed me about his abuse, but he showed his ass while I just did everything the court asked me to do. We weren’t married, and I didn’t want any money from him. I have a job and went into debt to save her. I now have an 80- year restraining order because I set my needs aside for hers. When you are dealing with an abusive ex partner, it has to be all about the kid. He eventually went to jail for trying to sell the Red Hot Chili Peppers to some Romanian concert promoters; he stole their money and committed international wire fraud. He ruined his own reputation.

        Sonni is making BIG mistakes. The courts don’t just sideline fathers because the mom wants the kid and the money. The kid has to be first. If this is about abuse, then she needs to act like it is. Going to the Daily Mail makes it look petty and like this is about money, not child abuse.

  9. David says:

    And she went to the Daily Mail for a paycheck? When did DM start paying child support? Also child support in unfathomable amounts. These people are vulgar and their daughter doesn’t deserve any of this crap.

  10. Mina_Esq says:

    He is gross. They both seem like crappy people. I’m exhausted just reading about them.

  11. LunaSF says:

    They both give me weird vibes. Legally if he earns less then he pays less. That’s the law. Does she support herself or their daughter in any way? $30,000 is more than most Americans make per year. It’s not like she has to get a job at Target to make ends meet. I feel bad for Ava but not for either of them. You have a baby with someone, you have to deal with them.

  12. Lory says:

    Part of his complaint is how she spends the money. Ava’s housing, food, clothing and transportation – and Renner is scratching his head and maintaining that his daughter’s “reasonable needs” shouldn’t be more than $11,200 per month, per TMZ.
    It’s my understanding in a custody agreement that he cannot comment or have a say in how the money is spent.

    • Anonymous says:

      I know these people live a totally different reality than we do, and I understand how much more expensive everything is in the circles in which they live. But I still cannot wrap my head around how a 6 year old’s “reasonable needs” can amount to anything close to $11,000/month. That’s mind boggling to me.

      • Lady D says:

        Security, school fees, medical/life insurance, a safe home, safe transportation, organic food, hobbies… yeah, for the life of me, I can’t come up with $11K a month to raise her. Do you know how many homeless strays I could feed for a year with that amount?