Tyrese Gibson Was Arrested at a Court Hearing for Unpaid Child Support
Tyrese Gibson has argued that the judge in the case is biased against him.
Published Sept. 10 2024, 10:23 a.m. ET
Family may not be as important as the Fast & Furious movies make it seem. Tyrese Gibson, one of the stars of that franchise, was arrested on Sept. 9 after a contentious child support hearing in which he was ordered to pay more than $73,000 to avoid jail time.
Following the news that the actor was arrested, many wanted to learn more about Tyrese's family life, including who his baby's mother is. Here's what we know about why the actor was arrested and who his baby's mother is.
Who is Tyrese Gibson's baby's mother?
Tyrese Gibson has children with two different women. He was married to Norma Mitchell from 2007 to 2009, and they have a child together. This child support hearing, though, was over Soraya, the child he had with Samantha Lee, whom he married in 2017 and divorced in 2020.
Tyrese was arrested during the hearing in Fulton County Superior Court for failing to provide payments that he had been first been ordered to make in April 2023. At the time, he was ordered to pay Samantha $10,690 a month in child support.
Judge Kevin Farmer gave Tyrese 48 hours to avoid jailtime if he paid $73.525.73, which is the amount of child support he owed as well as $7,500 for Samantha's legal fees.
According to reporting in TMZ, Tyrese has been paying $2,200 a month in child support, less than a quarter of the amount that he is supposed to be providing. The reporting also suggests that Tyrese has made arrangements to pay the outstanding balance.
"Getting arrested wasn’t fun, as a matter of fact, it was very traumatic," Tyrese wrote on Twitter after he was released. "One would ask why does this judge Kevin M, Farmer HATE me so much? Well attached is his nightmare details of the APPEAL!"
Tyrese clearly has lingering issues with Farmer, whom he posted about before his arrest on Instagram, saying that he expected to be arrested on Sept. 9.
“We are APPEALLING [sic] ALL OF HIS RULINGS AND ALREADY HAVE TRIED TO GET THIS JUDGE THROWN OFF THE BENCH TWICE,” he wrote on Instagram on Sept. 8. “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???
“It’s pretty clear that they hate my guts, but I must remind them and everything about my life and my success. I’ve worked my ass off since I was 14 years old to get here,” he continued. “#FamilyLawCourts are the WORST TOWARDS FATHERS.”
Hearings around Tyrese's child support payments have been contentious since 2022, which is when it was first ruled that he would have to pay more than $10,000 a month.
Tyrese reportedly snapped repeatedly at Samantha's lawyers during the hearing and was almost held in contempt. Following his arrest, it's unclear whether Tyrese now plans to pay the amount the court ordered, or whether he wants to continue defying that order.
