MLB Star Miguel Cabrera Ordered To Buy Life Insurance For Ex

Jan. 23--Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera's off-field fiasco has finally come to an end as a Florida judge has ordered him to pay $20,000 a month in child support to an ex-mistress he fathered two children with and pay off her nearly $1-million mansion by July.

According to Florida court documents obtained by the Free Press, the Detroit slugger must pay for health care, private tuition, day care, extra-curricular activities, vacations and $5-million life insurance policies for the two children.This is on top of the $20,000 a month he will pay their mother, Belkis Rodriguez, who lives in a gated community in Orlando with the children. Cabrera must also pay for the woman's attorney fees.

Cabrera's lawyer was not readily available for comment. Rodriguez's lawyer, Terry Young, declined comment.

The judge's order follows a trial that was held in Orange County Circuit Court, where Rodriguez sued the millionaire baseball player in 2017 for $100,000 a month in child support in an explosive lawsuit that outed their affair.

It also revealed the two children he fathered with her. The boy is now 6; the girl 3. Both of them will also get vacations equal to what the children Cabrera has with his marital wife get, under the court order. The judge also ordered that Cabrera provide the children with perks, like annual passes to Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World.

The nearly two-year-old paternity case was a slugfest in court, where Rodriguez continually fought to learn how much money Carbrera spends on his wife and children.

Rodriguez sued Cabrera in August 2017, claiming he left her and their two kids high and dry after his wife discovered the affair. She argued that given his $30-million annual salary, which equals $2.5 million a month, she was entitled to $100,000 a month under Florida's child support guidelines.

Cabrera's lawyer, however, argued that what Rodriguez was really upset about was that Cabrera wouldn't leave his wife.

"Following the birth of the second child, the mother became increasingly incensed by the father's refusal to leave his wife for her," Cabrera's lawyer, Benjamin Hodas, wrote in a court filing. "The mother would regularly threaten the father to expose their relationship, and children, to his wife and the media, and to file a paternity suit wherein she would seek 'millions of dollars' from him."

Out of fear, Hodas wrote, Cabrera caved to her demands. But the more he gave, "the greater the mother's financial demands increased," he wrote.

According to court documents, Cabrera had been paying Rodriguez $20,000 a month in child support without any court order, but cut the amount by $5,000 in the summer of 2017. Rodriguez argued this was only done by Cabrera to appease his wife, who discovered the affair and filed for divorce. Cabrera cut his payments, the woman's lawyer argued, because he wanted to stop the divorce proceedings, which ultimately did happen as his wife changed her mind.

Cabrera's wife, Rosangel, filed for divorce in April 2017. At about the same time, his then-mistress closed on a $1 million house that Cabrera helped her buy. Later that summer, Cabrera stopped paying Rodriguez the additional $5,000 a month in child support that he had agreed to pay when she bought the house, records show.

In August, Rodriguez hit Cabrera with a paternity suit, claiming she had no other choice but to sue Cabrera for leaving her with a lifestyle she couldn't afford.

In addition to helping her buy the five-bedroom Spanish-style mansion, records show Cabrera also showered Rodriguez with perks, including a trip to Europe, a Disney Cruise, $5,000 children's birthday parties and money for a Range Rover. He also spent $3,000 a month on travel for the two children to see him.

The lawsuit was filed during the end of Cabrera's worst season, when he batted .249 with 16 home runs and 60 RBIs while battling a back injury.

In court filings, Cabrera's lawyer has portrayed Rodriguez as a shakedown artist who is is trying to extort alimony from him, even though they were never married.

Rodriguez's lawyer has argued that Cabrera is a wealthy man who is shortchanging his client, when he should be paying her more given his wealth.

The two sides tried to settle the case for months, but the talks went nowhere. Cabrera's wife even attended two full-day mediations -- an arrangement that Rodriguez agreed to "out of her desire to attempt to amicably settle this matter," her lawyer wrote in court documents.

"(Cabrera) attempts to portray (the) mother as some villainous criminal attempting to 'extort' him for money ... when just the opposite is the case. (She) has made every attempt to work with (the) father over the years regarding child support," Orlando attorney Terry Young, Rodriguez's lawyer, has argued in court documents.

Young also has disputed claims that his client asked for too much.

"She has never attempted to 'extort' (Cabrera) for unreasonable sums of money in the hopes of securing 'alimony' for herself," Young has stated in court filings. "These minor children have done nothing wrong and certainly deserve the appropriate support from their father as Florida law requires."

Young argues the case is about the children, not the mother.

Cabrera's lawyer never believed that and portrayed the woman as a "gold digger."

In the end, the judge concluded $100,000 a month was too much, but that the home should be paid off, and the kids should get extras outside the $20,000-a-month payments.

Contact Tresa Baldas: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Tbaldas.

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