Dennis Quaid wants to stop paying child support now that his twins are graduating

Did you know that Dennis Quaid is currently married to his fourth wife? His first marriage ended in 1983, then Meg Ryan was his second wife, followed by third wife Kimberly Buffington, followed by his fourth wife Laura Savoie, whom he married in 2020. Even though Laura is much younger, they don’t have any children together. He has one son with Meg – Jack Quaid, who is already an actor of some renown. And he has teenage twins with Buffington. Well, his twins are about to graduate from high school, and Dennis has been eyeing their graduation date for years. He’s already filed to stop his child-support payments to Buffington.

Dennis Quaid filed a petition to stop paying his monthly child support payments to his ex-wife.

On Wednesday, May 20, The Substance actor, 72, filed a petition to end his $13,750 monthly child support payments to his ex-wife Kimberly Buffington for his 18-year-old twins Thomas and Zoe following their high school graduation, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

Quaid cited the terms of his 2018 divorce agreement with his ex-wife that stated the payments may end “when a child completes 12th grade (if still under 19 and a full-time high school student) or reaches the other enumerated endpoints, whichever occurs first.” Both of the twins are set to graduate in May and June of this year.

In addition, Quaid, who’s required to pay an additional sum to Buffington each year if he makes more than $1,314,000, requested the potential bonus amount that’s determined after his annual income is evaluated be “prorated to each child’s graduation date rather than using Dennis’ full-year 2026 income.”

Quaid and Buffington, his third wife, welcomed their two children in November 2007 in Santa Monica. The Parent Trap star is also a father to son Jack, whom he welcomed with his second wife Meg Ryan.

[From People]

I’m not a Dennis Quaid fan at this point, but… I don’t really have a problem with this? These are the kinds of child-support terms worked into most divorce settlements. Most men have to pay child support until their kids are 18 and/or graduate high school. That’s standard. I actually looked it up – Thomas and Zoe turned 18 years old last November, so his child support payments extended through their high school education. Which is smart, that Buffington worked it out that way. I’m surprised Buffington and Quaid didn’t have any sort of agreement about college expenses, but maybe that’s being dealt with separately.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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11 Responses to “Dennis Quaid wants to stop paying child support now that his twins are graduating”

  1. Talia says:

    I’ll side-eye him if he doesn’t pay college expenses but this doesn’t say anything either way – he may have every intention of paying for college and/or living expenses but not want to go through the children’s mother. That sounds fair enough.

    If he’s washing his hands of them because he can no longer be forced by the courts to pay up, that’s different but there is nothing to suggest that’s the case.

    • Alice says:

      This. I’m an European living in Canada and in all these countries, a payor of child support is obligated to keep paying as long as the child is a dependent i.e.’ a child of the marriage’ as defined in law. Meaning, as long as the child is not supporting themselves for a valid reason which higher education is. If the kid goes to college or university away from home, then that child support becomes just a differently named payment but it’s not stopping just because the kid turned a magical number of years.

  2. Irisrose says:

    He’s gone full blown MAGAT Christian. Difficult to have sympathy or empathy for his financial situation.

    They are very lucky the twins don’t have ongoing health issues from the hospital mistake when they were infants. Iirc the family won a lawsuit over that. Hopefully that money was put in trust for the twins

  3. CJW says:

    He is a full blown MAGAt!

    D. Quaid on Trump -“He may be an asshole, but he’s My asshole”
    yea, he can eff right off!

  4. Lucky Charm says:

    If the custody agreement defines the duration of child support payments, why would he have to file papers to stop it? They would automatically end the month they graduate according to the article. He’s just doing that to be performative “See, now I don’t have to pay any more child support, yay!”

    • Graphinya Heather says:

      Not necessarily. One or both the twins could have been held back a year, or graduated early. Since the schools wouldn’t be submitting to the courts any of that, it would be up to the parent/guardian. Right now, surface level, it sounds like just a normal court filing in a normal situation.

      But he’s MAGA so I could be proven wrong within minutes.

  5. bisynaptic says:

    Ew.

  6. jferber says:

    Quaid’s brother is a nut job too. And Quaid always cheated on Meg Ryan, but when she had an affair with Russell Crowe, her career was basically over. Quaid’s suck.

  7. lucy2 says:

    He’s awful, but this sounds like he’s abiding by their agreement? Not sure why People mag thinks that’s news but OK.

  8. jferber says:

    Sorry, Quaids suck.

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