Anthony Edwards is apparently tired of playing defense both on the court and in court. The Minnesota Timberwolves star is now accusing Ayesha Howard of running what he describes as a full-blown media pressure campaign during their ongoing child support battle involving their daughter, Aubri.
And according to Edwards’ latest legal filings, he believes this whole thing has turned into less of a courtroom dispute and more of a reality TV rollout strategy.
Edwards claims Howard allegedly “orchestrated a coordinated media campaign” designed to pressure him into agreeing to a financial settlement. Translation: he thinks every new court filing magically ends up becoming headline material faster than NBA trade rumors during free agency.
After Page Six exclusively reported earlier this month that Howard filed documents, claiming Edwards “intentionally” hid assets to avoid a child support decision in California, the NBA star’s legal team alleges she worked to “manufacture media exposure as leverage against Anthony.” (Edwards’ lawyer did not respond to Page Six’s request for comment on this allegation.)
Per the claims in the docs, each motion allegedly “gives [Howard] a fresh peg for media coverage that publicly humiliates Anthony, exposes the minor child, and causes Anthony to incur five-and six-figure legal fees.”
“The extortionate nature of this campaign has been publicly confirmed,” the docs alleged.
Every court filing now gets broken down online like game film. Every statement becomes a debate, every rumor becomes a trending topic. At this point, celebrity legal drama basically has its own ESPN coverage.
Edwards claimed in the docs that multiple media outlets reported that Howard allegedly “demanded” several preconditions to resolve their ongoing child support battle, including a lump-sum payment of $500,000; financial support for life; and a public apology posted on all of Edwards’s social media platforms.
“These are the demands of a litigant using the court process as a pressure mechanism to extort a private settlement that no court would order,” the docs claim.
“The filings, the media campaign, the parallel proceedings in two states, the refusal to comply with discovery, and the refusal to mediate are all designed to make the cost of defending so high that Anthony will pay whatever Ayesha demands to make it stop,” the docs claim.
Additionally, Edwards, 24, claimed Howard does not reside in California — where she filed for child support — and may never have lived in the state.
The “Starting 5” star is asking for a court to further seal requests in this case to prevent prejudice and to protect their 1-year-old daughter, who cannot “who cannot consent to the public dissemination of her full name, her health details, and the intimate circumstances of her birth.”
The saddest part in situations like this is always the child getting caught in the middle while adults battle it out publicly.
Flip to the next page for Ayesha Howard’s thirst traps…
