Kirk Kerkorian To Pay $10.25 Million In Child Support
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LOS ANGELES — Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian agreed Friday to pay more than $10 million in back child support plus $100,000 a month for a child his ex-wife has admitted is not his biological daughter.
Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, who was married briefly to the casino mogul after a long relationship, acknowledged during a child support battle that she had faked a DNA paternity test by using saliva she obtained from Kerkorian's adult daughter. She said the biological father actually was Hollywood movie producer Stephen Bing.
Michael Trope, the attorney for Bonder Kerkorian, filed the settlement Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He declined to comment. Kerkorian's lawyer, Joseph Mannis, did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press.
Kira Kerkorian is now 12, and court papers have said that she has known for quite some time that she has "two papas." Kerkorian, 93, has had joint custody of the girl, who lives with her mother.
The settlement, which provides $100,000 a month until Kira turns 19 or until she graduates from high school, no longer is a full-time student or no longer is living with her mother full-time. After that, the settlement says, the child support will be reduced to $50,000 a month.
The agreement also provides for Kerkorian to pay expenses including school costs, equestrian expense, clothing, housing, travel, hobbies, automobile, food, beauty treatments, tutoring, entertainment, parties and pets.
Bonder Kerkorian, 45, a former tennis pro, was married to Kerkorian for 28 days in 1999. They had been romantically linked for years. Kerkorian, once the majority shareholder of what is now MGM Resorts International, is the legal father of the child because the couple married.
The legal battle over child support between Kerkorian and his ex-wife has been going on since 2002. Bonder Kerkorian originally sought $320,000 a month in alimony and child support. The current agreement includes no alimony.
The contentious litigation between the couple became the centerpiece of one of Hollywood's more bizarre court cases when a private eye was charged with wiretapping Bonder Kerkorian's phones at the behest of Kerkorian's powerful entertainment lawyer, Terry Christensen. Both men were convicted of conspiring to listen in on her private phone conversations.
Kerkorian testified he never knew anything about the wiretapping. The private investigator, Anthony Pellicano, is in prison and Christensen is out on bail pending appeal.
Bing, who also fathered a son with Elizabeth Hurley, has repeatedly said he "wanted to be involved with Kira and take some financial responsibility," according to papers filed in the case in 2007. He agreed in 2003 to contribute $25,000 a month to her support, according to a letter from Kerkorian's attorney to Bing's lawyer.
The letter also alleged, however, that Bing "has never done anything to become a father to this child, either emotionally or financially. Meanwhile, Mr. Kerkorian has never shirked from providing financial support for Kira, despite having been defrauded into believing Kira was his biological daughter."
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LINDA DEUTSCH 10/22/10 04:42 PM ET Associated Press