Linda Evangelista Demands $46k In Child Support

by UInterviewAugust 3, 2011, 12:00 amNews >

Supermodel Linda Evangelista is asking a judge to order French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault to pay her $46,000 per month in child support. Evangelista, 46, and her lawyers, who plead their case in a Manhattan court yesterday, said she needs the money for a full-time nanny and armed bodyguards to protect her four-year-old son, Augustin, the New York Post reports. "That would probably be the largest support order in the history of the Family Court," the judge hearing the case said.

Pinault, who is married to actress Salma Hayek and is the father of their three-year-old daughter, Valentina, is the CEO of the Paris-based luxury conglomerate that owns Gucci, Yves St. Laurent and Bottega Veneta. While he has set up a $12 million trust for Valentina, the Frenchman has paid nothing of his $11.5 billion fortune to Augustin. "He's just been sitting back, paying zero," Evangelista's lawyer told the judge Monday.

Pinault's legal fought back, arguing that Evangelista is financially stable enough to provide adequate care for the child. "She testified that she wants to have a 24-hour nanny because she does not want to be alone with the child . . . Miss Evangelista, you should understand, has a worth of more than $8 million, and she earned, last year, $1.8 million," Pinault's lawyer told the judge.

While the judge immediately rejected Evangelista's demands for monthly "vacation" expenses, he was sympathetic to her need for added security for the child. "These are the extraordinary expenses that may be a part of the child's life," the judge said. "And if there is a trial [in the support case] with a lot of publicity, there will probably be a need for two detectives to drive this kid around." If the two parties cannot agree on a settlement, Evangelista and Pinault will have to return to court for a trial this fall.