10 Times Parents Sued Their Own Children

Top 10 Times Parents Sued Their Children

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Times Parents Sued Their Children.

For this list, we’ll be looking at infamous moments where parents tried to extract some sweet money from their children or punish them in a court of law. We’ll explore notorious cases with celebs and normal folk.

Have you ever been sued? Let us know below!

#10: Meester's Mistake

Having made her name as an actor and singer, Leighton Meester’s life took a hit in 2011. At the time, she supported her brother Alexander, who had undergone brain surgery, by sending their mother Constance $7,500 a month to care for him. However, Meester accused her mother of being an addict and spending the cash on cosmetic procedures instead. As such, she issued a lawsuit. However, Constance fired back with a countersuit claiming she was promised a one-off $30,000 and an additional $10,000 per month to look after Alexander and herself. Her suit added up to $3 million altogether. She also claimed her daughter physically attacked her. In 2012, the judge ruled in Meester’s favor.

#9: Offspring Thieves

In 2017, millionaire property developer Manny Davidson and his wife Brigitta lived primarily in Monaco. However, the family also owned the sprawling 18-acre Lye grove House in Gloucestershire, England, that neighbored King Charles’s Highgrove estate. They left the property in their children's hands, Maxine and Gerald, through a trust. The couple was told they would be able to use the Lyegrove House. Instead, their kids started the process to sell it. Then, the Davidsons discovered 600 precious items and artwork had been removed, totaling £17 million. So, they took their children to court. The kids counter-sued for £3 million worth of items they claim their parents took. In 2018, they settled on some of the objects.

#8: Libel Lawyers

Tianna Bartoletta is one of the US’s athletic greats. With several gold medals in championships, she also has three Olympic gold to her name from the 2012 and 2016 events. But shortly after her London heroics, Bartoletta and her then-husband John Bartoletta found themselves being sued for libel by her parents, Robert and Jo Madison. She had spoken publicly about her parents mishandling her finances and that they had let a boy into the house that they knew had abused Bartoletta at school. Her parents denied the allegations and were looking for $25,000 in damages. In the end, the case was dropped, and Bartoletta and her parents began mending their fractured relationship.

#7: Grandchild Wanted

While some parents might use tactics to guilt their kids into producing grandchildren for them, Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad from Uttarakhand, India, went a lot further with their son Shrey Sagar in 2022. They claimed that since they used their life savings to raise him and paid for his pricey $80,000 wedding and honeymoon and his $65,000 pilot training, then they were entitled to a grandkid from him and his wife Shubhangi Sinha, who wed in 2016. The Prasads issued a lawsuit claiming that if they didn’t get the new addition to the family within a year, they should be handed compensation worth around $650,000! Yikes.

#6: Estranged Economics

A woman known as Zhang from Guangzhou, China, had a rough start in life. When she was only two, her biological parents abandoned her as they couldn’t afford to care for her, leaving her with relatives to be raised. After that, Zhang rarely spoke to her parents. Well, that changed in 2022 when she was issued a lawsuit by them. Previously Zhang had splashed out some cash for her cousin to afford an apartment. When her parents reappeared shortly after, they wanted Zhang to pay for her biological brother’s property too. When she turned it down, they demanded 500,000 yuan, around $73,000. To make it worse, the court said she needed to negotiate the amount and pay the parental maintenance fee.

#5: Country Counterattack

LeAnn Rimes burst onto the country music scene as a teenager in the ‘90s. Since then, her father, Wilbur Rimes, has helped her with her career and managed her finances. But that relationship fell apart in 2000 when she sued him. Rimes claimed her dad and his partner had taken $7 million from her and her management company over five years. She was looking for an unspecified amount since she wasn’t sure what the final amount of the alleged theft was. Wilbur filed a countersuit claiming it was Rimes’s overspending that was the cause. By 2002, the cases were settled for an undisclosed amount. From there, the duo began to repair the damage the lawsuits did.

#4: Thespian Tribunal

While getting plaudits for her work on “Modern Family,” behind the scenes, Ariel Winter was experiencing turmoil with her mother, Chrisoula Workman. In 2012, she issued a lawsuit against Winter’s actor friend Mathew Borlenghi for defamation. Workman claimed his comments about her, which included her being described as an “abusive monster,” were lies. In 2013, the case was dismissed in court. At the same time, Winter was removing herself from her mother’s care after allegations of abuse. Instead, she was under the temporary guardianship of her sister, Shanelle Workman. In 2014, Workman withdrew her objections over the custody in court, and it was finalized. By 2015, Winter announced she was emancipated from her mother.

#3: Booted From The Nest

In 2018, Christina and Mark Rotondo in Camillus, New York, had a big issue… their 30-year-old son Michael. He was living with them at the time, but they wanted him to move and find a place of his own. They served him five notices, one with a 30-day eviction, and offered him $1,100. However, Michael wasn’t keen on heading out and getting a job. He claimed he should be given a six-month notice for eviction. So they all went to court to settle this debate. In the end, the judge ruled in his parents’ favor. As Michael began to move out to his cousin’s place, he called the cops on his father, who was apparently withholding his Lego collection. Wow.

#2: Oceans Apart

Hoping to raise awareness for LGBTQ+ kids in 2016 after the horror at the Orlando nightclub, musician Frank Ocean posted on his Tumblr. He spoke about his father, Calvin Cooksey, and an instance at a diner when he used homophobic and transphobic language against a waitress when Ocean was a child, the last time he saw him. Well. Cooksey didn’t like this. He sued his son for defamation and ruining his potential income from a music and film career. Cooksey demanded a massive $14.5 million in damages. In court, the judge ruled in Ocean’s favor, claiming that Cooksey had failed to prove what his son had said was defamation and not just facts.

#1: Mom’s Bad Spaghetti

Today, Eminem and his mother, Deborah Nelson, have a decent relationship. But it was a mess in 1999. After referencing his mother’s substance abuse in songs and to the press, Nelson issued a lawsuit against Eminem for defamation. She claimed she had experienced severe stress from her son’s allegations, resulting in the loss of her mobile home. Nelson requested $10 million in damages! She then issued a second case, giving her a combined $11 million. However, in 2001, Nelson was awarded $25,000 by the judge, with $23,354 of that going to one of her former lawyers. As such, she was handed just around $1,600. In 2014, Eminem released the song “Headlights” as an apology to his mom.