Milan Popovic says court set 3,000 euros child support
The businessman claims a court ruled two to three months ago that he sees his son every other weekend and pays 3,000 euros a month, without checking his income.
Milan Popovic claims a court ruled two to three months ago that he sees his son every other weekend and pays 3,000 euros a month in child support. The businessman made the claim on the show “Neispricano” on Kurir television, where he talked about a years-long custody dispute with singer Severina Vuckovic.
Everything below is Popovic’s account. Severina’s statement is not part of this interview.
What does Popovic say about the new ruling?
By his description, the parents shared time with the child equally for several years, and then a court changed that. Popovic says the ruling that stood for three to four years no longer applies and that, as he puts it, nothing has changed in the meantime.
“Now we have a new situation from two or three months ago, where that ruling, which lasted three or four years and under which we saw the child equally, was suddenly changed. The court issues a new ruling in which I get every other weekend with the child, without anything having changed, without me having done anything wrong.”
Popovic adds that, in his view, the decision was made “against the child’s will.” The court, he says, also ruled on child support.
A 3,000 euro child support order and the question of income
Popovic went into the child support amount in detail on the show. He claims the court did not look into his financial situation and never spoke with him, and he draws a calculation of the child’s needs from the figure.
“And they order me to pay child support of 3,000 euros a month. So, 3,000 euros a month in child support for a child, which means the child’s needs are 6,000 euros a month, as of today. And now, that is the judge who obviously should be reviewed, on what basis she made such a revision of the ruling and set such child support for me to pay, when she has not seen me, has not talked to me, has not examined my financial situation, nothing at all.”
The figure of 6,000 euros a month is his own calculation of the child’s needs, not a detail from the ruling.
How does he describe the earlier course of the dispute?
Popovic took the conversation back to 2019. He says the child was then awarded to him, based on the opinions of the Center for Social Work, the child’s special guardian, and expert witnesses, a psychologist and a psychiatrist.
“But look, that 2019 ruling, when the child was awarded to me, was based on the opinion of the Center for Social Work, the child’s special guardian, and expert witnesses, a psychologist and a psychiatrist, who evaluated the parents and the child. And the judge who issued the ruling simply copied that expert opinion, which was unanimous: that the child be awarded to me.”
According to him, the child lived with him for almost two years, roughly 20 months. Popovic says that during that period the mother had every other Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and every other weekend, but that, by his account, she did not use the Tuesdays and Thursdays. Asked whether Severina used the 88 hours she was granted in one ruling, he answered:
“No. The mother still says it is a corrupt system, the judiciary, the centers and whatnot, but she never says who exactly was corrupt and who corrupted whom. Obviously these terms are just thrown around carelessly.”
The court in Split then, he says, overturned the 2019 ruling after two years, “contrary to all expert opinions.” According to Popovic, three to four years of equal time with the child followed, and then the new decision of two to three months ago.
Igor Kojic and the flights to Zagreb
Singer Igor Kojic, Severina’s former husband, also came up in the conversation. Popovic says that for a time he was an important part of the child’s life and spent more time with the child than the child’s mother did. Of that, Popovic says: “it hurt me, but I endured it.”
He is specific about his own scheduled time. He claims he practically never missed one, and that on Wednesdays at noon he would fly to Zagreb, pick the child up from kindergarten, return him to his mother, and fly back to Belgrade in the evening. Now, he says, he cannot go to Zagreb that often because he has other children.
He described his relationship with his son this way:
“The child recognizes me as his father and is very happy to see me whenever I call him.”
Popovic does not call the custody dispute a fight. He says it has always been a process in which he tries to contribute to the child’s healthy psychological development.
What is missing from this interview?
Popovic did not show any of the rulings he discusses on the show, so their contents cannot be verified. The other side is also absent: Severina’s statement on the court’s new decision has not been published.
