In child support cases it is always he said, she said.
Melanie Paige Smith has been claiming T.O. hasn’t been paying and that he is refusing to pay in the future. She has taken these claims public. Because she is going through legal channels most people have taken her word for it.
Owens’ representatives are saying that isn’t true and T.O. is the victim who isn’t being allowed to see his daughter.
Here is their statement.
Melanie Paige Smith, the mother of NFL wide receiver, Terrell Owens’ daughter went to the Atlanta press again today with false information to tarnish Mr. Owens’ name. She stated to a news source that Mr. Owens does not intend on paying future child support payments. This is false.Mr. Owens pays Ms. Smith every child support payment due to her since the birth of their child over 5 years ago. The August payment due to Ms. Smith has been placed in an escrow account while the visitation issue is being resolved. The immediate issue is that Ms. Smith has continually denied Mr. Owens the right to see his daughter. She has blocked Mr. Owens from having a consistent relationship with his young daughter.While he continues to be denied from seeing his daughter by Ms. Smith, Mr. Owens has continued to pay an amount to her every month based on a salary amount he has not collected since 2007. He has never requested a modification. If ever fairly modified, her payments would be dramatically reduced considering Mr. Owens is not currently signed to an NFL team and in the past few years of playing has earned much less than what he did in 2007.These are private family matters and it is unfortunate that because of his profile, Ms. Smith finds the need to share their business with the world.
The amount in question is $5000 a month, I don’t think that is unreasonable considering Owens has made close to $50 million just playing football. I don’t think we should feel sorry for him that he hasn’t asked for a reduction and he has possibly mismanaged his millions that would require a reduction.
With that being said if you take Owens’ word, then Ms. Smith has some explaining to do, because you should never not allow a man to see his daughter.
The problem is we don’t know who is telling the truth and who is lying.
The answer is probably somewhere in the middle. The sad thing is the person who is the real loser in all of this is Owens and Smith’s daughter.
Hopefully for her well being they work it out.
