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Follow up to
this postThe ugly child custody trial between actress Uma Thurman and financier Arpad Busson over their four-year-old daughter Luna continued today with both parties taking the stand.
Among the allegations made by Uma's lawyer:* Arpad offered to give up all legal rights to Luna in exchange for not having to pay any child support. Arpad admitted he made the offer but said he did it because Uma was making his visitation so "onerous".
* Arpad told Uma that he hired someone to take his baccalaureate (high-school graduation) exam for him. Arpad admitted he said it.
* Arpad once admitted to Uma that he is addicted to prostitutes. Arpad denied this.
* Arpad threatened another one of his exes, model Elle Macpherson, causing her to wear a wire around him. Arpad's lawyer objected before he could answer and the judge sustained the objection.
* Arpad also said that Uma invited herself along when their daughter was scheduled to come to London for his birthday party: “I was blackmailed. I had to buy business class tickets for the nanny and the mother and the daughter at an exorbitant price,” he griped about the $30,000 cost. He said that he later learned that the reason Uma came was because "her lover was in London".
Uma then took the stand and alleged:* “[Arpad] was very difficult to be with. He was very angry. He got meaner and meaner.” When she canceled a trip to the Bahamas with him because her older daughter (by Ethan Hawke) had been in a serious car accident, “He had a very aggressive tantrum in front of all the kids, he started yelling and shouting throughout the house. It was very upsetting and traumatic for myself and the children.”
* When she told Arpad she was pregnant with Luna, "He looked at me and said, ‘Well the child won’t share your last name, cannot be a U.S. citizen and can’t have a U.S. passport and will be raised Catholic.'”
* After they split when their daughter was 18 months old, she didn't hear from Arpad for "quite some time", and then his secretary contacted her and said he wanted visits. He canceled half of his scheduled visits with Luna and after only two overnight visits, he sued for custody.
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