Divorce and paternity are in the news after the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves star Malik Beasley has decided to question his son’s paternity during his divorce from his model wife, Montana Yao.
Technical Foul
Beasley, 24, is contesting the paternity of his two year old son, Makai, who was born in March 2019, according to court documents obtained by Page Six on Wednesday.
A paternity test was conducted, but the results were unknown leading up to Beasley and Yao’s March 29 court date.
The Timberwolves player’s attorney, Steven A. Hanley, told Us Weekly that the test was “taken last week.” While the results are pending, a court granted Yao’s request for $6,500 per month in child support, but a judge denied Yao’s request for $5,300 per month in spousal maintenance and for him to pay $20,000 for her attorney’s fees.
Florida Disestablishment of Paternity
I’ve written on paternity and disestablishment of paternity before. Paternity refers to a man who has the rights and responsibilities of a parent, regardless of whether he is the biological father or not.
Through legal paternity, the father is responsible for the child’s upbringing, has a parental relationship with the child, and has an obligation to support the child.
In Florida, there are a few ways to determine paternity, including marriage (such as when the mother and father are married at the time of the birth or Court order that determines legal paternity paperwork. For example, the father voluntarily signs the child’s birth certificate or affidavit of paternity.
You can also disestablish paternity in Florida to avoid these responsibilities. A father needs to demonstrate proof that he is not the father of the child in order to disestablish paternity in Florida.
For example, an affidavit signed by the Father explaining that newly discovered evidence regarding paternity has come to his attention since the time that legal paternity was first established. The evidence must have been discovered after the finding of legal paternity. It cannot have been known prior.
Another important factor to include is the result of a DNA test showing that the legal father is probably not the biological father of the child, or an additional sworn statement stating that he was not able to obtain a DNA sample from the child. The father can also request the court to order the DNA test.
The father’s child support payments also have to be current, or at least, substantially complied with and making child support payments on time. In the event there are any past-due payments owed, the father’s affidavit has to state why the payments are past due.
Finally, a court has to determine that the legal father has not adopted the child. The child cannot have been conceived by artificial insemination while the legal father and mother were married. The legal father must not have prevented the biological father from asserting his rights. Also, the child must have been under 18 years old when the petition for disestablishment of paternity was filed.
However, even if a father properly files a petition for disestablishment and follows all the necessary steps in the statute, a judge can still deny the petition.
Double Dribble
Beasley and Yao were married on March 20, 2020 but Yao filed for divorce on Dec. 8 of the same year shortly after cuddly pics surfaced of Beasley holding hands with Larsa Pippen.
Yao, 22, claimed earlier this month that Beasley kicked her and their son out of their joint home. She alleged on social media that the duo was bouncing around “hotels and Airbnb’s even moving states” until her parents agreed to help them.
The model also denied she cheated on Beasley, who began dating Pippen while they were still married. Pippen, 46, insisted that she met Beasley after he was separated from Yao, but photos of them in Miami suggest otherwise.
“It had nothing to do with me, so I wasn’t thinking anything about it,” Pippen said in February. “If you spent a minute Googling their situation, it wasn’t the ideal situation way before me.”
The article is here.