Despite what his estranged wife says, Gary Owen wants to make it known he is a dedicated father.
During a recent interview on The Wendy Williams Show, the comedian responded to his wife’s claims that he is a “deadbeat” dad. When host Wendy Williams asked Owen about his relationship with his children he clarified by saying, “we have adults.”
He went on to add: “No, for real, ’cause it got out there that I’m a deadbeat dad, but our kids are adults.”
Owen said his legal counsel advised him to stay tight-lipped on the matter, but he did add, “My lawyer doesn’t want me to say anything.” Owen continued, “We got a lotta legal stuff we gotta go through. But I will say, there’s a big twist in my divorce that a lot of people don’t know about. It’s a doozy, but I can’t speak on it yet. But it’s big. It changed the whole dynamic of the divorce.”
As theGrio previously reported, Owen and Kenya Duke have been married since 2003 and share two adult children. In March, Duke filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Duke recently took to Instagram to call him out for his lack of parenting.
“You haven’t supported us since April 1st. Nothing, nada, zero not electric, water, gas, not insurance (medical, dental, life, car, house, etc.), not groceries, not maintenance for the house, not the gas or maintenance of the cars, not the platinum card I got for us (because you wanted one) and you couldn’t get one (on your own), not the cell phone you had for 23 years; instead, you just got another phone number and didn’t pay the bill,” she wrote in the caption.
“All of our bills are attached to my SSN and credit. You have paid the $4500 mortgage that is attached to your SSN and credit (for the 1st time) but that is it. You haven’t seen your daughter in over 6 1/2 months, you haven’t seen your son in over 4 months. This is your choice. You do remember us right???? I “guess” we were useful when your content was needed.”
theGrio also reported that despite speculation, the official reasons for the couple parting ways remain unclear. But documents obtained by TMZ allegedly show that Duke is now requesting $44K a month in support.
She claims that the amount she claims is equivalent to what Owen would normally deposit into her account for bills, living expenses, and other miscellaneous necessities.
She also notes that she was tasked with abandoning her own budding career in order to support her husband’s dreams of stardom, so he is directly responsible for why she can’t cover her own expenses.
She then claims that her estranged husband’s monthly income usually hovers between $200K and $400K and has never dipped below $100K a month, even during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the documents, Duke said it was common for her spouse to have uncashed checks ranging between $300K and $600K piling up and that due to his affluence he was never in a rush to deposit them into his accounts.
Additional reporting by theGrio’s Blue Telusma
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