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Tyrese Gibson is denying claims made by his estranged wife Samantha Lee, that he locked her and their two-year-old daughter Soraya out of their Atlanta home.
Although the couple publically announced their separation last week, TMZ reported that Lee actually filed for divorce from Gibson back in September, following the incident and being financially cut off. Now, Lee is requesting $20,000 in child support, which Gibson claims is “unreasonably high.”
As reported by TMZ through obtained court documents, the Fast & Furious star has a different explanation for the couple’s split. The outlet reported that after returning to their home from being on a movie set back in late August, Lee “confronted him [Gibson] … kicking off a tense, 3-hour conversation where she threatened to call cops.”
Rather than staying around for the cops to show up, Gibson claimed “multiple public incidents involving police brutality and racially motivated killings of unarmed African American people” made him not want to be involved in any type of interaction with the police. Instead, he decided to call an Uber and leave the home.
The couple has been married for close to four years, originally tying the knot in 2017 on Valentine’s Day. In an Instagram post shared by both Lee and Gibson on their respective Instagram accounts from December 30, they shared that although they were officially separating and filing for divorce, they wanted to still be friends and good co-parents to their daughter, Soraya. Also, they included in the message that they still “truly have so much love and respect for each other,” but didn’t want to take the “grueling” energy of 2020 into 2021.
“We have decided to make a statement of a painful and significant development in our lives. After much thought, consideration, and prayer, We unfortunately have made the difficult decision to officially separate & divorce,” the message read. “Our intention is to remain the best of friends & strong coparents. We feel incredibly blessed to have found each other and deeply grateful for the 4 years we have been married to each other. Our journey together has been a ride of both ups & downs, but it’s a journey that neither of us would have chosen to take with anyone else. We truly have so much love & respect for each other. We both have grown tremendously within this relationship; we have shared so many beautiful memories and moments, and we also look forward to see the amazing futures we have ahead of us individually. As if 2020 hasn’t already been extremely grueling and challenging we wanted to mutually speak on this now to keep this energy in 2020 and not take this energy into 2021. We would really appreciate your most sincere prayers and to respect our privacy at this time as we deal with the reality of where we are.”
Gibson, who has dealt with child support issues and public custody battles in the past, seems as though he’s on the track to do that again with Lee. While the announcement of their separation last week made it seem like the couple would try to split amicably, the continual release of more details on what really happened before Lee filed for divorce and her child support requests might prevent that from happening.
