Ex-NBA Star Matt Barnes Denies Owing Gloria Govan $133k In Back Child Support, Rushes To Court
Apr. 13 2023, Published 3:00 p.m. ET
Ex-NBA star Matt Barnes has hired a lawyer to fight his ex-wife Gloria Govan after she obtained a $133k judgment against him, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Barnes showed up to court this week after being ordered to pay the ex-Basketball Wives star the 6-figure sum.
Last month, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered Barnes to pay his ex $133k for alleged past-due support. Govan claimed her ex had stopped making the court-ordered payments. In addition, the court ordered him to pay $25k in fees and sanctions.
Govan and Barnes divorced in 2015 after two years of marriage. The exes share 14-year-old twin sons. Initially, the ex-Lakers star was ordered to pay $20k per month in child support but that was slashed down to $7,500 after he retired from the league.
At the hearing last month, Govan was present with her lawyer but Barnes did not show up. As a result, the judge entered the judgment in favor of the former Basketball Wives star.
Now, in newly filed documents, Barnes said he had no idea about the hearing and was not properly notified. He said he contests the amount Govan claims he owes in back child support.
In his filing, he accused Govan of “serving” him with the legal papers at an email address he no longer uses. He said his ex knew the email had not been used but still used it to “serve” him.
Barnes said he hasn’t used the email address in over a year since the account was hacked. He claimed Govan knew of this and has consistently used his new email address. Further, he said she claimed to have served him at his home. Barnes said he never received any documents.
He told the court after finding out about the judgment from news reports, he quickly hired a lawyer to represent him in the case.
He added that Gloria never once mentioned the hearing to him despite them being in constant contact about their sons.
He said, Gloria and I texted the evening of March 8, 2023—the very same day as she appeared in Court on her RFO and secured a default order against me. At no point did Gloria mention her RFO, that I failed to appear, or the default order that resulted. She made no mention of it either in the following days.”
Barnes said he wants the judgment vacated and a hearing set for him to argue his side of things.
As RadarOnline.com first reported, Govan has her own separate legal issues at the moment over an alleged $200k debt to her former lawyers.