Kerkorian Denies Fathering Girl, 3
In a surprise twist to an increasingly nasty child support dispute, MGM mogul Kirk Kerkorian denied Thursday that he is the biological father of a 3-year-old girl, Kira, whose mother is asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to award a record $320,000 a month.
The 84-year-old billionaire said in court papers that as the mother’s financial demands escalated, he felt as though he had been set up and submitted strands of Kira’s and his hair for a DNA test. He learned in November 2000 that the test scientifically excluded him as the father.
The mother, former tennis pro Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, was informed of the test results months ago, his court papers say.
While denying he is Kira’s biological father, Kerkorian said he has grown attached to the girl and intends to continue to provide for her. He has set up a trust fund for her education, and is asking the court to award child support of no more than the $50,000 he currently pays.
That “already substantially exceeds any amount ever ordered by the Los Angeles Superior Court--or any other court in the United States,” said his attorney, Dennis M. Wasser.
Lisa Kerkorian’s lawyer, Stephen A. Kolodny, could not be reached for comment
The bitter dispute became public last month, when Lisa Kerkorian filed papers in the couple’s divorce seeking to increase Kira’s monthly support. She and her lawyer argued that the child should not suffer because the relationship between her parents recently has chilled.
Her version of the story portrayed a lavish lifestyle with a man so leery of marriage that he had his lawyer talk her into a preplanned 29-day marriage and quickie divorce that she says left her heartbroken. She says that at the time of their marriage she waived all her rights to spousal support because he promised he’d always take care of Kira’s every need.
When times were good, she said, Kira enjoyed perks “befitting the daughter of Kirk Kerkorian,”--including a $70,000 birthday party at the Hotel Bel-Air, summer vacations in France, a phalanx of nannies and bodyguards, and $436 a month for care of her pets, including a bunny Kerkorian gave as a Christmas present.
In his version, Kirk Kerkorian charges that she fabricated the story that he was Kira’s father “for her own monetary benefit and to remain a part of my life despite the nonexistence of a romantic relationship between us.”
The money demanded, he said, would benefit the mother, not the child.
“The truth of the matter is that Kira is not able to comprehend the difference between a lifestyle based upon $30,000 per month or $300,000 per month; nor does she have any meaningful way to benefit from any such difference,” Wasser argued in the court papers filed late Thursday.
“It is quite reasonable to believe that Kira would be far happier eating a ‘Happy Meal’ at McDonald’s and playing at McDonaldsland than she would be sitting at a dinner table in an upscale, adult restaurant being shushed by a coterie of nannies so as not to bother” her mother and the other adults. “Similarly,” the document said, Kira would be much happier going to Disneyland than “taking a long, boring plane trip to Paris.”
The legal filing alleges that the couple stopped cohabiting in 1995, two years before Kira was born. He said he broke off the relationship after learning she was “telling people that she believed I should be giving her money because I was doing well in my business. I was deeply disturbed that [she] secretly had such discussions with people around me.”
He said he gave her $1 million to start her life over in New York. Instead, he said, she “simply moved into a friend’s house and kept the money.”
He followed that up with $4 million in June 1997, leading to a weeklong reconciliation during which they had sex, according to the court papers. Three months later, he said, she told him that she was pregnant and that was absolutely certain he was the father.
He said he took her at her word and accepted both financial and psychological responsibility for the child, who was born in March 1998. Initially, he paid $20,000 a month in support. Later, he said, Lisa Kerkorian submitted a list of her expenses, saying she, her teenage son from her first marriage, and Kira could live comfortably on $48,000 a month.
“By the summer of 1999,” he continued, she was pressing him to marry her. “When I refused, she appeared depressed. I was extremely concerned about her emotional state and how it might affect Kira,” he said. She told him it was “difficult to be the mother of our out-of-wedlock child, and that she felt society looked down upon her.”
He says she agreed to a brief marriage, then balked at divorcing him. He said they never occupied the same home. Four months after their marriage, she again demanded money from him, Kerkorian charged. This time, the money was to remodel a house in Beverly Hills, where she would raise Kira. She said she needed $4.6 million.
Kerkorian said he paid her $2.5 million when their divorce became final. At that point, he said, her “animosity toward me increased dramatically. No matter what I did, and despite the increasing sums of money I had given to her, that animosity only got worse.”
She moved to New York but never stayed long. Kerkorian said she told him that she found an “acceptable” apartment for $12million, but that the “really nice” apartments cost $30 million to $40 million. She agreed to return to Los Angeles if Kerkorian would set up a $25-million trust fund for her, his court papers say.
That was the final straw for the billionaire. He said he finally told her, no.
Their relationship continued to deteriorate. Finally, on Christmas Day, Kerkorian alleges, she tossed a toy Mickey Mouse phone he had given Kira the previous evening over his gate. The toy broke into pieces. Then, he says, she threatened to toss the pet bunny over the fence as well. They haven’t spoken since.
