Heat Star Jimmy Butler Facing Legal Battle Amid Trade Demand

Miami Heat‘s disgruntled star Jimmy Butler is in a heated custody and child support battle against his ex-girlfriend Kaitlin Nowak, the mother of his three children, according to Daily Mail.

The dispute stems from Nowak’s request for an additional $10,000 for a nanny on top of the $55,000 monthly allowance Butler is sending her for child support for their kids Rylee, Brayan, and Kian.

Butler, 35, claims in the lawsuit documents obtained by Daily Mail, that he wants Nowak to explain how she spends the ‘tremendous’ sums of money he gives her.

 

 

 

 

 

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The report also added that Butler’s lawyers also noted Nowak’s “alleged refusal to get a job.”

“It must be pointed out that the Father and Mother were never married. Mother is not entitled to live as if she is married to a National Basketball Association (NBA) player,” the lawsuit claimed.

Butler’s lawyer, Brian Karpf, told DailyMail.com that “Child support is intended for the benefit of the children and only the children. There is no justification for additional expenses here.”

Karpf maintained that his NBA star client has been “a good dad, who ‘remains committed to the care and wellbeing of his children.”

Kaitlin Nowak’s Petition Coincided With Jimmy Butler-Shakira Dating Rumors

Butler and Nowak started dating in 2019, the same year they welcomed Rylee, their first child. The Heat star even took a paternity leave from the Heat, skipping the first three games of the 2019-20 NBA season.

Rylee and their second child Brayan appeared on Netflix’s “Starting 5” documentary, which followed the lives of five NBA stars, including Butler.

“My kids, they really set everything in like proportion, the way that I look at things because when I come home, they don’t care if I had a triple-double or if I fouled out in the first three minutes of the game, I’m just their dad,” Butler said in the documentary. “They could care less about anything else. Whenever I’m home, I try to the best of my ability to be their dad first.”

According to the Daily Mail report, Kiyan’s birth was only disclosed when Nowak sought additional financial support in an October 2023 petition, just a few weeks after she gave birth.

Around that time, Butler was linked to Columbian singer-songwriter Shakira, who was spotted several times attending Heat games with her kids. Butler and Shakira were also spotted in London after sharing a dinner.

However, Butler has denied dating Shakira in a Rolling Stone interview in October 2023.

She’s an incredible human being and an incredible talent, but you never know what people are doing so people just make stuff up,” Butler told Rolling Stone. “Just because we are friends, she lives in Miami, and her sons are big basketball fans — that doesn’t mean anybody’s dating. Just because people hang out doesn’t mean anybody’s dating. But it gives everybody something to talk about, so y’all take it and y’all run with it. She’s very, very cool and that’s all I got!

Trade Demand

Butler is also in the midst of a staredown battle with Heat president Pat Riley after he demanded a trade out of Miami over also financial issues following the team’s refusal to offer him a contract extension in the offseason.

The Heat have suspended Butler for seven games without pay for conduct detrimental to the team that would cost him $2.4 million of his $48.7 million salary this season.

The tension between Butler and the Heat started when publicly admonished Butler for talking trash to eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics and fierce rivals New York Knicks after the Heat were eliminated.

“If I was playing, Boston would be at home. New York damn sure would be [expletive] at home,” Butler said on May 4.

Two days later, on May 6, Heat president Pat Riley admonished Butler during his end-of-season press conference.

“For him to say that, I thought, is that Jimmy trolling or is that Jimmy [being] serious?” Riley told reporters. “If you’re not on the court, playing against Boston, or you’re not on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut in your criticism of those teams.”

Riley dropped the bombshell at the time that they were not going to extend Butler before this season.

“We don’t have to do that for a year,” Riley said at the time. “And so, we have not discussed that internally right now, but we have to look at that, making that kind of commitment.”