About a week ago, Matt and Gina Kirschenheiter reached a divorce agreement in court, having only a few property divisions to work out.
At least, that’s what the world — and the court — thought.
Now, Matt is backtracking, claiming that he can’t pay Gina the court-ordered support because his assault on her cost him his job.
There was a time when Gine Kirschenheiter expressed pride in how amicable her divorce was going.
That time has passed. In June, Matt was arrested for allegedly assaulting Gina in her home and threatening her life. Scary stuff.
Their divorce continued, as the court determined custody and child support.
Gina and Matt share legal custody of Nicholas, 7, and Luca, 4, and daughter Sienna, 5, with Gina getting primary physical custody.
Matt was instructed to pay Gina $9,627 each month: $4,500 of which is for child support and $5,127 of which is spousal support for Gina.
That was all based upon Matt’s salary and commissions from last year, when he brought in $421,000.
Meanwhile, Gina only made about $30,000 during that same time period.
Now, Matt is arguing that he can’t afford to pay nearly $10,000 per month — and that Gina makes enough that he shouldn’t have to.
It looks like that $30,000 figure is no longer true, and that for Season 13 of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Gina made more than twice that.
Matt reports that Gina was paid $63,000 by RHOC production and then another $5,450 by NBCUniversal.
At the same time, Matt no longer has a job with which to keep Gina — or their children — fed, clothed, and housed.
He cites his "forced resignation" from work, which had already barred him from appearing on reality television alongside his now ex.
In a filing made on Tuesday, Matt says that his odl work "made it clear that we must part ways" after his domestic violence arrest in June.
New gainful employment, Matt says, has been "difficult to obtain."
He claims that this is not his fault, but in fact the fault of "tabloid type publicity and online articles about him."
Oh, so articles like this one. Gotcha.
To hear Matt tell it, his current income is a big fat goose egg — $0.
He reports his savings in the bank as $100,000, and that is including a $75,000 severance following his involuntary resignation.
That’s no small lump of change, but even if he had no living expenses, it wouldn’t be enough to make payments to Gina for very long.
In the mean time, he says that Gina should be just fine.
Matt estimates that she rakes in $10,000 a month through reality TV paychecks and various endorsement deals.
Meanwhile, Matt says that life itself is going to bleed him dry even faster than paying support to Gina will.
He says that he pays $2,500 for rent, $600 on groceries, $400 on eating out.
(That rent is painful to read but realistic given what he’s accustomed to, and that food budget is normal for just about anyone)
He says that he chips in $1,250 for the children’s educational expenses.
Another $4,700 goes towards his car payment and in general to his credit cards.
All told, each month that passes costs him $12,875.
The couple are due back in court on October 10 to hash things out … again.
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