Former Grey’s Anatomy Star Jesse Williams Ex-Wife Fights Against His Request For Lower Child Support

Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams and his ex-wife Aryn Drake-Lee are once again duking it out in court over monthly child support payments, based on court documents according to Radar Online.

Williams and Lee were together for more than 13 years and married from 2012 to 2017, Emily Cottontop reports.

Williams requested the courts decrease his $40,000 monthly child support payments since he is no longer pulling million-dollar checks after leaving his lucrative acting role on ABC hit hospital drama series Grey’s Anatomy. Based on 2019 financial records, the blue-eyed actor earned $6.2 million from the show and another $183 in residuals, according to Radar Online.

The divorced couple shares joint custody of their two kids, Sadie and Maceo. Lee argues that Williams should fulfill his financial obligations to her on the agreed-upon settlement amount, Radar Online reports.

In December, Williams filed court documents saying his departure from Grey’s was “grow and shape my career before the looming end of the show.”

“I am 41 years old and there is a long history of actors who become defined by one long-running role, who struggled to be seen (and employed) differently beyond that role. I cannot let that happen if I want to continue to have a successful career,” he said, according to Emily Cottontop.

Williams is currently starring in a Broadway play, Take Me Out but explains that his income from January 2021 to November 2021 was reduced to $660k. He discloses that he makes only $1,668 from the show.

“My current income is far from sufficient to maintain a $40,000 per month child support number, especially since I still pay one-half of the children’s private school tuition, the children’s extracurricular activities, medical care, and all of their expenses when they are with me including child-care and my own expenses,” the actor writes.

“I am requesting the court reduce the child support to a reasonable amount I can afford given the significant reduction in my income and the now fluctuating nature of my income.

The child support should also be reflective of our two young children’s actual lifestyle and not some exorbitant/imagined version,” he concluded.

Williams also says his ex-wife holds an Ivy League degree and brought in a six-figure salary as a real estate broker in California and New York.

Lee’s attorney hit back at her ex-husband’s request.

“[Jesse] left a favorable, coveted, high-paying position on a successful T.V. show, in pursuit of his “own path,” and now seeks to shed his family responsibilities,” the motion reads, according to Radar Online.

Lee says Williams is placing his needs before his children.

“In his Request, [Jesse] mentions [Aryn’s] education and prior earnings as a real estate agent. However, he fails to mention that [Aryn] gave up her thriving career in New York for him more than 13 years ago, to relocate to California to support and focus on building his acting career and businesses. Her “income” during the marriage as his unofficial manager, is comparable to her income now,” writes her lawyer, Radar Online reports.

The contentious ex-couple are awaiting a judge’s decision.