Texas residents may be hard-pressed to understand the amount of child support a certain supermodel is seeking from her son’s father. Linda Evangelista is again involved in family law matters, after she filed a claim seeking child support. The supermodel had a child five years ago with French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, who has since remarried. Both individuals involved are well known in society and pop culture, so their family law matters are typically covered within the press.
Evangelista claims it was suggested by Pinault that she terminate her pregnancy. Pinault says that, while he was not included in the decision-making process of keeping the child, he also told her he would “recognize the baby.” The man’s lawyer refutes Evangelista’s claim that he wanted her to terminate the pregnancy. Evangelista’s attorney stated that after Pinault suggested the termination, she told him that she would take care of the child by herself since he was showing no interest. His lawyers fired back, calling her claim false, defamatory and damaging to their son.
Her attorney also claims she has been supporting the child and covering all of his expenses for the majority of his life. However, very recently her lucrative deal with L’Oreal ended, which may be the reason she has filed this lawsuit. She is seeking $46,000 a month in support, which includes $16,000 for armed chauffeurs and $7,000 in nanny fees. While this case heats up, the reality is that many of these child support disputes are settled in the end, and that may happen in this instance as well.
Family law matters in Texas and elsewhere can be delicate and emotional. Whether Evangelista will receive the amount of support she is requesting remains to be seen, but it is not unlikely that she will receive some type of child support for her son since courts typically view these disputes in terms of the best interests of the children. Further, if the parties do reach a settlement, an added benefit may be that they are able to keep further details from becoming public, whereas if the dispute were to go to trial, they may risk having further information become public fodder.
Source: People, “Linda Evangelista Child-Support Case Grows Ugly,” Stephen M. Silverman, May 4, 2012
