The ongoing custody battle between “Flipping Out” star Jeff Lewis and Gage Edward just keeps getting uglier, with Edward both insisting he’s going to “stay silent” while laying into Lewis at the same time.
On Friday, Lewis went public over the collapse of discussions via mediation toward a formal custody arrangement. They’d been working under a temporary agreement over 3-year-old daughter Monroe for months. The couple separated in January 2019 after a decade together.
The reality star decided to open up about the ongoing dispute on his SiriusXM radio show, “Jeff Lewis Live.” He explained to his listeners that he no longer agreed to some of the terms in that formal arrangement — it has apparently been ready to sign since earlier this month — and is ready to abandon mediation altogether.
“I’m going to fight this to the bitter f–king end,” Lewis said. “If I felt like the motivation was pure and this was about our daughter, then I’d be very open to mediation or whatever. But because I really believe that this is serving [Edward’s] best interest, I will fight it.”
“If we have to go to court, we go to court,” he added nonchalantly.
His main issue, he revealed, is all about how much time Monroe spends with each parent. Lewis current enjoys a 70 percent advantage over Edward, who is seeking more equity. He argued that Edward doesn’t even see Monroe 30 percent of the time now, so why should he get more.
And in a more subtle dig, he added as another argument, “I put Monroe first before myself and everything I do is Monroe-centric.” The implication is clear.
Plus, he thinks this is a “money-motivated” move on Edward’s part. Apparently there is not a written child support agreement in their current custody agreement, so Lewis thinks Edward is trying to increase his percentages time-wise toward increasing his financial support as well.
“Normally when someone is caught up in the days and the hours and the percentages, it usually means there’s some sort of child support motivation,” he said.
While Lewis continues airing their ongoing saga to the public, Edward insists that he intends to “stay silent” for the sake of their daughter, and he did this through a lengthy statement to People where he laid out a bit of his side and threw a few digs at Lewis.
His statement in full follows:
I will continue to stay silent on the issues related to our private custody case. To address the derogatory and slanderous statements being made about me would be putting my interest above our daughter’s. The situation is being exploited for attention, which is sad because that ultimately only affects our daughter later. What I will say is that there are gross mistruths in the majority of what’s been said.
Unfortunately, in these types of situations, it’s never possible to know who’s got the true story — or if it lies somewhere in between — but it’s unfortunate that the former couple isn’t able to come to a more peaceful agreement over custody of Monroe.
Hopefully, both continue doing their best to keep things cordial for her sake (as they did coming together amid the battle to celebrate her birthday) and that they can put this chapter behind them one way or the other so the tension and anger and frustration will have minimal to no impact on her.
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