NYC judge approves child support deal for supermodel Linda Evangelista, French billionaire

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Supermodel Linda Evangelista and a French billionaire, saying they were pleased to end a public fight over paying their 5-year-old’s expenses, on Tuesday got a judge’s approval for a confidential child-support deal.

“We are happy that we were able to reach an agreement for the benefit and well-being of our son, Augie,” Evangelista and Francois-Henri Pinault said in a statement issued through a spokesman.

A Manhattan magistrate had signed off earlier in the day on their agreement and sealed it from public view.

Evangelista, one of the biggest names in modeling in the late 1980s and early ’90s, reached the pact Monday with Pinault, who runs a luxury-goods conglomerate and is now married to actress Salma Hayek.

The settlement came in the midst of a trial that delved into their finances and personal lives. The trial forced both to testify in open court about touchy subjects, ranging from Pinault discussing Hayek’s difficult 2007 pregnancy to Evangelista talking about how much she still commands for modeling jobs.

Evangelista, 46, went to court for Tuesday’s brief session and stayed silent as she left, wearing leopard-print pumps and a modest black suit. Pinault, 49, wasn’t there, though he had been for the other days of the trial, which started Thursday.

Evangelista had said in court papers she spends $46,000 a month on armed bodyguards, a 24-hour-a-day nanny and other expenses for the boy, whose formal name is Augustin. Pinault, who makes about $4 million a year, had said through lawyer David Aronson that he was willing to pay some support but not a potential $46,000 a month.

The intercontinental twosome dated — sporadically, Pinault said — over about four months in late 2005 and early 2006. Augie was born in October 2006.

After Pinault told Evangelista he didn’t plan to raise the boy with her, she willingly paid all the expenses herself at first from her roughly $1.8 million-a-year income. But a big contract with L’Oreal ended in the last year or so, and she now needs Pinault to chip in, her lawyer, William Beslow, said during the trial. He said she wasn’t asking for any particular amount.

Pinault is CEO of PPR, a holding company that owns Gucci, Yves St. Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Boucheron and other fashion lines. Forbes estimates his family’s net worth at $13 billion.

He and Hayek married in 2009 and have a 4-year-old daughter, Valentina. He also has two children from a previous marriage.

The Canadian-born Evangelista is a Vogue cover model many times over, including on the current Italian Vogue. She was among the high-wattage guests at Monday’s night’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala, one of the fashionable events on the society fundraising calendar.

At the height of her career, she famously said supermodels “don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day,” a remark she has insisted was a joke.

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