Paul Pierce child support drama is heating up again, and this time his ex Princess Santiago is accusing the NBA legend of keeping his cannabis company, a commercial property and other assets out of the paperwork.
Santiago, the mother of Pierce’s youngest son, King Rafael Santiago Pierce, filed new court documents claiming the former Boston Celtics star has not fully turned over his financial information in their ongoing case. According to the filing, obtained by TMZ, Pierce has not produced every page of his bank statements and left out information about his trust distributions, meaning payments he receives from money held in a trust.
The list keeps going. Santiago says Pierce failed to hand over records tied to his cannabis company and did not provide complete information about his income from Fox Sports 1. She also claims he never disclosed that he holds an ownership interest in a commercial property.
On top of the missing records, Santiago says Pierce has not paid the $10,000 the court ordered him to cover so she could hire a forensic accountant. A forensic accountant is a financial investigator who combs through bank records, business interests and assets to figure out how much money someone actually has. In her motion, she is asking the court to make Pierce pay that $10,000 along with an additional $40,000 toward her legal fees.
The new filing is the latest chapter in a Paul Pierce child support fight that has played out in court all year. Santiago, a Los Angeles event planner, filed a paternity case in January while she was still pregnant, asking for genetic testing to confirm Pierce was the father. King was born on February 6, and Pierce later acknowledged he is the boy’s father and asked for joint legal and physical custody.
The money is where things got tense. Santiago asked for nearly $30,000 a month in child support, pointing to the more than $200 million she says Pierce earned during his NBA career. Pierce pushed back hard. He asked the court to set support at $4,145 a month, saying he is not making anywhere near what he made as a player and already carries heavy obligations, including $20,000 a month in spousal support and $24,000 a month in child support for his other children.
His own filings told a different story about his paycheck. Court documents showed his monthly income at $128,000 in 2025 and $165,000 in 2026. Pierce said part of his Fox money was drying up after his show with Joy Taylor was canceled.
Pierce also used his response to fire back at Santiago’s claims about his personal life and drinking. “I live a quiet and stable life with my girlfriend. I do not drink to excess,” he told the court.
The judge ultimately set Paul Pierce child support at $8,508 a month on a temporary basis and ordered him to put $100,000 toward Santiago’s legal fees. Temporary support is an amount set while a case is still being decided, so the final number can change once the court has a full view of a parent’s finances.
That full view is what Santiago says she is not getting. If the cannabis company, the commercial property and the trust payments bring in real money, the math on what Pierce owes his youngest son could look very different.
No ruling has been made on Santiago’s new motion.
