Actress Halle Berry has finalized one lingering aspect of her lengthy divorce process with her ex-husband, Olivier Martinez: custody of their child.
This arduous process started in 2016 and took almost eight years to hammer out, resulting in Berry paying $8,000 per month for the care of their 9-year-old son, Maceo. The details of their arrangement were revealed through court documents, according to Forbes.
The former celebrity couple will have joint physical custody; however, Berry will be responsible for Maceo’s private education expenses and maintain possession of his U.S. passport.
“In exercising joint legal custody, each Party shall consult and cooperate with the other to reach a mutual agreement with respect to issues affecting Maceo ‘s health, education, and welfare and neither Party shall make unilateral decisions impacting Maceo,” the court document explained. “Each Party shall keep the other Party informed of all matters pertaining to Maceo’s health and/or illness, education, and general welfare.”
In California, where the divorce was filed, child support isn’t solely dependent on a parent’s income, but is calculated considering the income difference between both parents and the time the child will spend with each of them, according to California Child Support Services.
This state law outlines that it is a parent’s responsibility to support a child “according to circumstances and station.” The thinking behind this law is to make sure children maintain a “lifestyle commensurate” to that of the parent, with the child having a consistency in comfort and livelihood while moving from one household to another.
Starting from April 1, the Oscar Award-winning actress will give her ex-husband Martinez $8,000, which is 4.3 percent of her income exceeding $2,000,000. She also will provide extra child support in two equal payments by Dec. 1 each year. Additionally, she will cover 100 percent of the expenses for Maceo’s extracurricular activities and reimburse her ex-husband for up to $3,500 spent on soccer-related costs in 2023.
She is also responsible for Maceo’s medical and dental insurance, along with covering any costs not covered by insurance.
This is not the first time Berry, whose estimated net worth is $90 million, has had to pay out to an ex. Following her divorce from Gabriel Aubry in 2014, Berry was required to provide a monthly child support payment of $16,000 for their daughter Nahla, along with a retroactive fee payment of $415,000.
Thanks to a recent decision regarding the support of the teen, the maximum annual child support payments for Nahla have been set at approximately $206,000. This sum is significantly lower than what Aubry might have been entitled to in 2023 under the previous ruling.
Initially, she was ordered to pay a lump sum of $115,000, but the two later settled on the current agreement.
While she is paying the order expenses, she thinks “the [custody] laws are outdated,” she told Vanity Fair. “The laws are outdated and no longer reflect the modern world. This is just my opinion. I clearly don’t own the truth. I can say I’m living it every day, and I can tell you it’s hard. I do totally understand the feelings of those men who feel they are and have been taken advantage of by the system,” she said.
She will pay support for the young girl, including expenses connected to her private school education until she is 19. Currently, she is 15 years old.
