If you're a parent thinking about filing for divorce in Pasadena, the news of music producer Timbaland's divorce may have come as a surprise due to his wife's rather unorthodox child support request.
Timbaland is best known for working with stars such as Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliot, Nelly Furtado, Jay Z, and Ludacris. His wife of five years, Monique Mosley, filed for divorce recently. In addition to seeking substantial alimony and child support for their daughter Reign, Mosley is also asking for child support for her 10-year-old son from a previous relationship. The boy was born before the couple started dating and Mosley raised him as a single mother until her marriage to Timbaland.
If a woman has a child from a previous relationship and her new partner legally adopts the child, he would have all of the same rights and responsibilities as a biological father. If they later divorced, he would need to pay child support. Timbaland's case is unique, however, because he never legally adopted his wife's son. She is seeking child support for the boy based on the argument that he privately and publicly claimed the child as his own. She is essentially stating that Timbaland is the boy's father by default.
Past cases of men being ordered to pay child support when they were not the biological father have typically centered around children born as the result of a wife's extramarital affair. In most cases, the men ordered to pay child support originally believed that they were the biological fathers. There is also the legal presumption that a child born to a married couple is the biological offspring of the husband and wife.
It's too early to tell how this case will play out, but it will no doubt be watched with great interest by divorce lawyers and concerned parents alike.
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If you're in need of legal representation for a child support related issue, please call our office at (626) 683-8113 or email us at info@PasadenaLawOffice.com. Our Pasadena divorce attorneys are eager to help in any way possible.