Billionaire's ex wife wants more money

Billionaire's Ex-Wife Wants More Money

LOS ANGELES CAP) - The ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian is asking a court for the biggest child support award ever in California, $320,000 a month to care for their 3-year-old daughter.

In court documents, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian lists monthly expenses for daughter Kira including: $144,000 for travel; $14,000 for parties and play dates; $7,000 for charity; $4,300 for food, plus $5,900 to eat out; $2,500 for movies, theaters and outings; $1,400 for laundry and cleaning; $1,000 for toys, videos and books; and $436 for care of Kira's bunny and other pets.

Lisa Kerkorian, a 36-year-old former tennis pro, said her 84-year-old ex-husband promised to take care of Kira's every need, according to a 33-page court declaration obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

"In all our discussions ... the word 'needs' never meant basic needs, but what was required to maintain her in the station of life and with all the things and benefits befitting the daughter of Kirk Kerkorian," Lisa Kerkorian said in the court papers filed last week.

Kerkorian, ranked by Forbes magazine as the world's 46th-richest person with an estimated $6.4 billion fortune, is a casino mogul, the majority shareholder of MGM Mirage Inc. and one of the largest shareholders of DaimlerChrysler.

The couple met in 1986 and became romantically involved after Lisa Kerkorian's first marriage broke up in 1991. Lisa Kerkorian said she pressed him to marry her, but he refused; she tried to leave in the summer of 1997 but soon found out she was pregnant, according to the court documents.

Kerkorian agreed to marry Lisa in 1998 - five months after Kira was born - on the condition that his wife file for divorce a month later and that she waive her right to spousal support, the documents say.

Kerkorian agreed to pay $50,000 a month in child support, and for a time upped that to $75,000 a month. But Lisa Kerkorian contends that is not enough for Kira, whose first birthday party cost $70,000 and who has flown more than 35 times on private jets.

Kerkorian has remained silent on the case, but his lawyer, Dennis M. Wasser, calls Lisa Kerkorian's account "fiction."

SOURCE: Associated Press, April 14, 2002