Tyrese Gibson was arrested in Atlanta after attending a court hearing regarding child support of his and ex-wife Samantha Lee’s 5-year-old daughter, Soraya.
Gibson, 45, was taken into custody on Monday, September 9, at the Fulton County Superior Court after Judge Kevin Farmer found him in contempt for nonpayment of more than $73,000 in child support, according to court documents obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
The actor was ordered to pay $10,690 a month in child support in 2022. When he appeared in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday amid his legal battle, the judge said he could avoid jail time if he pays $73.525.73 to his former spouse within 48 hours, per the order of incarceration. That sum includes $7,500 in legal fees that Lee previously paid.
Gibson, who split from Lee in 2020, had been making the partial payment of $2,200 in child support monthly, according to TMZ, which was first to report the news. Gibson’s payments amount to just under 25 percent of what he was ordered to pay in 2022.
Us Weekly has reached out to Gibson’s team and Fulton County Police Department for comment.
The Fast X star predicted his incarceration over the weekend, claiming in a since-deleted Instagram post that “Samantha’s lawyer Adam Gleklen and William Alexander who are besties with the judge Kevin M Farmer” were guilty of “[collusion].”
Gibson wrote in the Sunday, September 8, post, “We are APPEALLING [sic] ALL OF HIS RULINGS AND ALREADY HAVE TRIED TO GET THIS JUDGE THROWN OFF THE BENCH TWICE,” according to THR. “The second time we tried to get him recused from the bench. [He actually denied his own request to be thrown off the bench] …imagine that???” he alleged of the judge.
“It’s pretty clear that they hate my guts, but I must remind them and everything about my life and my success,” Gibson added. “I’ve worked my ass off since I was 14 years old to get here. #FamilyLawCourts are the WORST TOWARDS FATHERS.”
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Gibson and Lee were married for three years before Lee filed for divorce in December 2020. The exes released a joint statement about their split that same year, calling the breakup “a painful and significant development in our lives.” (In addition to his and Lee’s daughter, Soraya, Gibson is the father of daughter Shayla, whom he shares with ex-wife Norma Mitchell.)
Two years later, Gibson faced off in court against Lee. At the time, judge Farmer ruled that Gibson should’ve been paying his ex-wife $10,690 a month in child support dating back to 2020 when she filed for divorce. The judge determined that Gibson owed a back payment of $169,000, during that hearing, which he has not fully paid.
Earlier this year, Gibson exclusively told Us Weekly that he was channeling his heartbreak from the messy split into new music. “It is the most important album I’ve ever done in my career,” Gibson explained in June. “It’s about my divorce. And it’s about discovering the beauty that I found in my pain. That’s why it’s called Beautiful Pain.” His album dropped last month.
