Michael and Jean during happier times

A judge ruled on Tuesday that retired football player Michael Strahan no longer has to pay $18,000/month in child support payments for his twin daughters. Just last year,Michael’s ex-wife was awarded $15.3 million, in addition to the $18,000/month child support.Not only has Michael won his appeal against the monthly child support obligation, but he also does not need to get a multi-million dollar disability insurance policy or pay for his ex-wife’s legal fees divorce as was deemed in 2006. Here was the reasoning behind the judgement:

The judges [Tuesday] said it was unfair Strahan was required to pay 91 percent of the child support since his ex-wife, Jean Strahan, was well-educated and employable. “Both parents have a shared obligation to support their children,” wrote Judge Lorraine Parker.

Jean Strahan’s “employment opportunities were, in all likelihood, enhanced by her celebrity marriage. There is no question that as a healthy, educated, 41-year-old, (she) is capable of earning her own income,” wrote Parker, who was joined by Judges Rudy Coleman and Thomas Lyons.

The panel ordered a trial court judge in Essex County to reconsider the child support and to determine what needs the children have that are distinct from their mother.

“Some of the expenses claimed by (Jean Strahan) clearly should have been deleted by the court,” wrote the court in a 23-page ruling.

A few of the expenses the court questioned were: that “the children” paid for a trip for their nanny and her family to Jamaica and gave their grandmother diamond jewelry. The panel also singled out that no explanation was given for why the girls required $30,000 in landscaping, or what $3,000 in audio visual expenses provided for the girls.

The couple married in July, 1999 and in October their twin daughters were born. He filed for divorce in March, 2005.

Twin daughters, Isabella and Sophia, were born on October 28th, 2004.

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