Child Support

After four children and almost five years of marriage, the legendary Shaquille O’Neal filed for divorce from his wife Shaunie back in September.

O’Neal also said in his petition that Shaunie had been “secretive about her assets … particularly with respect to certain properties owned or titled in either [her] name alone or in other entities.” He requested that the court require his soon-to-be ex-wife to give a “correct accounting of all money, funds, stocks, bonds, and other securities (including bearer securities)” obtained during the marriage.

As part of the divorce, O’Neal, who makes approximately $1.8 million a month (yes, a month!), released his private financial records to the Palm Beach Post in January. He makes a ton of money, yes, but also spent a lot of it on expenses. The breakdown is as follows:

$156,116 on mortgages (for three properties)

$110,505 on trips and vacations

$31,299 on homeowners insurance

$26,500 on childcare

$24,300 on gas

$17,220 on clothing

$14,905 on electricity, phone bills and cable

$12,775 on food

…and the list continues.

This week, the two have finally reached a divorce settlement outlining all terms of the divorce including child custody and property division. Under their agreement, Florida courts will now have jurisdiction to officially divorce the couple and a judge will handle any issues that come about involving their spousal support and property division.

California courts, however, will have jurisdiction to handle any issues involving custody of their children.

All in all, Shaunie’s a very lucky lady and will most likely be walking away with about half of O’Neal’s overall worth.

In a 20-minute hearing yesterday, a judge ordered Levi Johnston to pay child support and some back payments for the care of Tripp, the 1-year-old son of him and Bristol Palin.

Back in November, Bristol, the daughter of former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, filed a petition in accordance with Alaska law seeking sole custody of Tripp with visitation rights for

Johnston. The 19-year-old (then 17 years old) also requested $1, 7000 of child support a month from Johnston.

The judge eventually ruled that Johnston must pay $1, 688.42 a month in support, extending back to when the child was born in December 2008.

Bristol’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, told TMZ, “Bristol is pleased with the court rulings today and looks forward to resolving the remaining issues with Levi.”

Everyone’s sick of hearing about these two already. Johnston needs to take responsibility and pay his support and Bristol needs to move on. Enough is enough!

Jon Gosselin showed up for a divorce arbitration hearing Saturday with a bouquet of red roses for possible soon-to-be ex-wife Kate. Her reaction? She turned them down and after the daylong hearing left the courthouse empty-handed.

In an arbitration hearing, the hired arbitrator carefully listens to both parties and makes a final decision that cannot be appealed. Many couples choose this route if they want to avoid a messy, expensive and more drama-filled divorce.

According to Jon’s lawyer Mark Heller, the chosen arbitrator is expected to rule in a month and it’s very likely the couple’s contentious divorce could be finalized by the end of this year.

The many issues discussed include child support and custody of their eight children and distribution of assets.

Like many celebrity divorces, there’s a good chance things can go sour for the Gosselins, but we can all count on the reliable and relentless media to continue giving us the play-by-play.

In Atlanta earlier this year, former NBA player Jason Caffey was arrested for not paying thousands of dollars in child support for his six-year-old son. Back in the Fall of 2008 Caffey filed for bankruptcy, perhaps to get out of this obligation, but an Alabama judge denied it which made Caffey fair game to either pay the child support or be sued to force him to pay it, which is what ended up happening.

During his nine year basketball career, Caffey played for the Chicago Bulls, the Golden State Warriors, the Milwaukee Bucks, and made lots of bucks, approximately five million a year. He’s retired now so he should be able to find some time to drop a check in the mail, wouldn’t you think?