Tyrese Has "Made No Effort Whatsoever" To Pay Ex-Wife's $500,000 Court-Ordered Attorney's Fees

Tyrese Gibson's years-long divorce battle with ex-wife Samantha Lee Gibson has taken yet another bitter turn. According to a newly filed civil lawsuit, the singer and actor allegedly still owes nearly $500,000 in court-ordered attorney's fees. And Samantha's legal team now wants him jailed for contempt of court. The motion, filed last week, claims Tyrese has "made no effort whatsoever" to pay the hefty legal bill, despite clear orders from the court.

From the filing: "Mr. Gibson has the ability to pay the court-ordered attorney's fees and accrued interest and chooses to ignore the court's order," the filing states. "This is a blatant disregard for this court's authority."

The original amount owed, $399,512, was awarded in 2023 when the couple finalized their divorce. That included $217,731 to The Gleklen Law Firm and $181,421 to Bloom Lines Alexander. But interest has pushed the total to a staggering $492,651.99.

Samantha's legal team is demanding that the court hold him in criminal contempt and sentence him to 20 days in jail for willfully violating the court's order.

(Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)

Tyrese's Relationship & Financial Ups And Downs

This isn't even Tyrese's only marriage that has spiralled into financial and legal problems.

From 2007 to 2009, Tyrese was married to a woman named Norma Mitchell, with whom he shares a daughter. Well into 2017, they were still fighting bitterly over support payments. In November 2017, Tyrese posted a cryptic message to Instagram in which he claimed he was "desperate and broke." Around this time, he also claimed to have borrowed $5 million from Will Smith just to get by. Meanwhile, The Rock had delayed the filming of a "Fast & Furious" movie, depriving Tyrese of a much-needed paycheck.

However! It should be noted that in January 2017, Tyrese paid $4 million for a mansion in Atlanta, Georgia. The place is insane. Tyrese gave a tour of the home to Architectural Digest in 2021. As you'll see in the embedded video below, the home is six stories and spans 25,000 square feet. The home has an elevator, has a mini Optimus Prime in the first-floor home office, a large-scale Optimus in its own covered shelter in the backyard by the pool, and a towering replica of Bumblebee in the foyer to greet visitors. Furthermore, there's a recording studio, a TWO-ACRE backyard, a resort-style pool, and an outdoor theater with a 4k waterproof projector screen. Real estate websites now estimate the property to be worth at least $7 million:

A month after purchasing the mansion, Tyrese married Samantha Lee, a social worker with a master's degree in social justice. The couple welcomed a daughter, Soraya, in 2018 and appeared to be building a life together.

Unfortunately, this relationship also soon unraveled, and by December 2020, they had separated. Samantha filed for divorce, and the proceedings quickly turned contentious, with disputes over child support, legal fees, and property dividing the former couple.

20 Days In Jail…

Since the divorce was finalized in 2023, Tyrese has repeatedly clashed with the court over his financial obligations to Samantha. At the heart of the conflict is the $10,000 monthly child support he was ordered to pay. For months, Tyrese sent only $2,236 per month. That underpayment led to a dramatic moment in April 2023, when a Fulton County judge found Tyrese in contempt of court and ordered him to immediately pay $237,000 in back child support and an additional $400,000 to cover Samantha's legal fees.

Even after that ruling, Tyrese continued to push back. In September 2024, he was temporarily taken into custody for failing to keep up with his payments. He was released hours later, but the episode highlighted just how deep the financial tensions between the exes had become. The following month, one of Samantha's law firms filed a lien against his Atlanta mansion, attempting to collect on the unpaid debt.

Now, with interest inflating the outstanding legal tab to nearly half a million dollars, Samantha's lawyers are asking the court to crack down harder. In their latest filing, they're urging the judge to hold Tyrese in criminal contempt and sentence him to 20 days in jail.

A Difficult Net Worth To Pin Down

Frankly, Tyrese's net worth has been a pain in our butts for years. Based almost entirely on the value of his real estate, we currently estimate Tyrese's net worth at $3 million. Here's more of our rationale/history:

Tyrese is still undoubtedly one of the biggest film stars on the planet. He stars in a Fast & Furious movie roughly every two years. My sources estimate he makes $3-5 million per Furious movie when you include backend participation. Since 2009, when the legal battles with his first wife, Norma, began, Tyrese has starred in the following films, just to name a few:

• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
• Fast Five (2011)
• Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
• Furious 7 (2015)
• Ride Along 2 (2016)
• The Fate of the Furious (2017)
• F9 (2021)
• Morbius (2022)
• Fast X (2023)

And, as a reminder, in early 2017, he was financially sound enough to buy a $4 million mansion in Atlanta. Today is worth at least $7 million. But, also, as a reminder, later in 2017, he claimed to be broke and allegedly had to borrow $5 million from Will Smith. Fast forward to 2022, and in a court filing, Tyrese listed his monthly income at $105,000… but also reported $107,000 in monthly expenses. He said he had $900,000 in the bank and $1.7 million in real estate. In March 2022, he sold a house in Woodland Hills, California, for $2.4 million. In 2023, he was nearly arrested for underpaying his court-ordered support by 2/3rds. And now he might get arrested for not paying a court-ordered $500k. Are these the actions of someone who is having liquidity problems? Or just someone who is extremely stubborn and bitter? Either way, the clock is ticking…

Oh, and one final funny anecdote: Back in 2015, Tyrese went on a date. At some point during the date, he asked if he could borrow the girl's phone to look something up. When he pulled up a browser to do his search, the last page on the screen was his CelebrityNetWorth profile. And he wasn't pleased about it 🙂