Eminem Ends Custody Fight Over Daughter
Aug. 30, 2000 -- Eminem has given up the fight for physical custody of his 5-year-old daughter.
The 26-year-old rap star and estranged wife Kimberly Scott Mathers have agreed to joint legal custody of their daughter Hailie, with Mathers to have physical custody. Eminem, né Marshall Mathers, will be entitled to “liberal” parenting time while in Michigan, while other arrangements will be made for time outside Michigan.
The former couple also reached a settlement on a $10 million lawsuit she filed over an Eminem song titled “Kim.” In the song, Eminem raps about killing Kim Mathers while the couple’s daughter watches. The couple, who were high school sweethearts, married just last year.
Eminem will also continue to provide financial support to Mathers, reinstate her credit cards and pay court costs. The agreement will also allow Mathers to keep the couple’s Sterling Heights, Mich., home and freezes their financial “status quo” for the time being.
Daughter Is ‘His Whole Life’
There was no immediate comment from either Eminem or Mathers, but the rapper’s maternal grandmother, Betty Kresin of St. Joseph, Mo., had plenty to say about the matter. She expressed shock that her grandson would concede the custody battle so quickly. “His daughter is his whole life,” Kresin told The Macomb Daily. “And that little girl is just crazy about her dad.
“He always wanted to be there for her, because his dad wasn’t around for him, and he made sure she didn’t want for anything,” Kresin said.
Hailie is pictured on the cover of Eminem’s smash album, The Slim Shady LP.
Eminem filed for divorce on Aug. 16, seeking joint physical and legal custody. On Aug. 21, Mathers filed a counterclaim, alleging her husband wasn’t fit for even partial custody of the child and demanding $10 million in reparations for being the subject of song lyrics and onstage antics that caused her “emotional distress.”
The couple has been separated since a June 4 incident in which the rapper got into an altercation outside a Warren, Mich., nightclub after witnessing a man kissing his wife. Eminem is currently facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed weapon stemming from that incident, and is due back in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing on the weapons charges.
Shortly after that incident, Mathers addressed the media attention surrounding their private life in a letter sent to the Detroit Free Press, noting that “just because my husband is an entertainer, that does not mean that our personal business is for everyone’s entertainment purposes …”
In July, Mathers slashed her wrists in an apparent suicide attempt in the couple’s Sterling Heights home, a record producer said. Wall of Sound and The Associated Press contributed to this report.