In the midst of a trial that brought tales of the high life and high fashion to family court, supermodel
Linda Evangelista and a billionaire French businessman have reached an agreement to end their
child support fight, their lawyers said Monday.Evangelista,
Francois-Henri Pinault and their attorneys were mum about the details, which they planned to give to a magistrate on Tuesday.
"Everybody is very glad that it's over,"
Pinault lawyer David Aronson said.
The
settlement came in the midst of a trial over how much, if anything,
Pinault should pay toward the care of their 5-year-old son. Pinault is
the CEO of a company that owns Gucci,
Yves St. Laurent and other top-flight fashion lines; he's now married to
actress Salma Hayek.
Both
Pinault and Evangelista had testified at the trial, answering questions
that delved into her career, his high-flying finances and his limited
relationship with the boy. Evangelista had been due to continue
testifying Monday.
The two sides negotiated all weekend and into
Monday morning, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.
In
legal papers, Evangelista had said she was spending $46,000 a month on
armed bodyguards, a 24-hour-a-day nanny and other expenses for the boy,
Augustin, nicknamed Augie. He was born in 2006 after a four-month
relationship; Pinault said he and Evangelista spent only about seven
days together in all.
Evangelista's lawyer said she willingly paid
all the child's expenses at first, but she now needs some help. While
Evangelista — who once quipped that supermodels "don't wake up for less
than $10,000 a day" — testified that she still can command about
$100,000 to walk a runway, attorney William Beslow said her roughly $1.8
million-a-year income sank last year because a major contract with
L'Oreal ended.
"Ms. Evangelista is not looking to piggyback the
lifestyle of Mr. Pinault," Beslow said in an opening statement last
week. He said she wasn't asking for any particular amount.
As part
of the family behind luxury-brands conglomerate PPR, Pinault makes
about $4 million a year, and Forbes estimates his family's net worth at
$13 billion. He wears a $100,000 watch, dropped about $52,000 on a
12-day vacation to Bora Bora and bought himself about $62,000 in clothes
in a single year, according to his testimony.
Pinault, who has a
4-year-old daughter with Hayek and two other children from a previous
marriage, legally recognized Augie as his son in 2007. Pinault said
Evangelista asked for what he considered an unreasonable amount of child
support, he countered with another offer, and he didn't get a response
for years. She went to court in 2010.
"We are not going to claim
that he cannot pay a fair and reasonable child support," Aronson said in
an opening statement. But $46,000 a month, he said, would be "just
ridiculous."
That would indeed
be high, even for New York, though there have been some other big-money
child support cases here. Rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs was ordered
in 2005 to pay about $19,000 a month in support, and Revlon Inc.
Chairman Ronald Perelman was ordered in 1999 to pay more than $12,000 a
month.
