14 DAY TRIAL // One year ago, Mel Gibson announced he was divorcing his wife of 30 years, Robyn. He then made it clear that he was dating Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva, who was also carrying his child. Five months later, they broke up, but the split won’t cost the legendary actor and director that much, People magazine has learned after speaking to an attorney (who is not involved in the situation).
While his ex-wife Robyn might actually walk away with half of everything he’s worth (and Mel Gibson’s estate was estimated a couple of years ago at $900 million, just to get a vague idea of the amounts we’re talking about), Oksana was never married to him. Of course, the star will pay child support, but this will be small change as compared to the kind of money she would have got had she been his lawful wife, it is being said.
“What’s his latest breakup going to cost Mel Gibson? According to a family law specialist, the wealthy actor-director-producer will likely pay a large amount of child support to ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva for their 5-month-old daughter, Lucia, but probably has no legal responsibility to make alimony payments, given the fact they were not married,” People writes.
“This is not dissolution of marriage action. The mother would have rights to child support, which in the case of Mr. Gibson, will be very substantial. He is what we call a high-income earner, and there is a high-income earner stipulation that says they must pay any amount reasonably necessary for the support of the child. Merely living together and having a child does not give the mother any rights to property and certainly no spousal support,” attorney Steven Knowles says.
Because Gibson is a high-income earner, Knowles estimates Grigorieva may get $15,000-20,000 a month in child support. Of course, before taking the above for granted, one must also bear in mind that the two haven’t even confirmed they’re no longer an item.