Teyana Taylor, 33, is one of the latest celebrities to find herself in court over child custody issues. In a recent filing, obtained by TMZ, the singer and actress asked for a child psychologist to testify in their ongoing divorce proceedings from her ex, Iman Shumpert.
Taylor would like the child psychologist to testify about the NBA player having a female friend and that woman’s daughter staying overnight during his weekend visits with their daughters, 8-year-old Junie and 3-year-old Rue. She is accusing Shumpert of confusing their girls by having the unidentified woman there, staying overnight. The singer and actress said she learned about the woman and her daughter staying there because she saw and heard them in the background during a FaceTime call. The former NBA player also allegedly took the kids and the female friend to SkyZone, an entertainment park for kids.
Additionally, Taylor claims Junie, their oldest daughter, was “confused” by seeing her dad sharing a bed with this female friend. In the documents filed, the A Thousand And One actress claimed her ex’s explanation to Junie was that the friend was staying with him because her home was “broken.”
Taylor’s goal with the filing is for Shumpert to abstain from having this woman around their kids during the weekends he has them–the first and third weekend of each month, in addition to select Fridays. The 33-year-old wants a child psychologist to testify since she claims Shumpert doesn’t realize the impact of him bringing his female friend around his daughters.
There is also another issue at hand. Taylor claims Shumpert withdrew almost $4 million from multiple shared accounts. For this reason, she’s asking a financial expert to testify.
The former couple married in 2016 while she was pregnant with Junie. She filed for divorce in January of 2023. While the split seemed to begin amicably—Taylor even told fans “not too much on my bestie” when news of them separating broke–(which came before people knew she’d actually already filed for divorce) things have since turned sour.
The former pair initially kept their divorce private, using only initials in their filings. However, the former NBA player proceeded to use full names in his court filings, making the matter public.
Taylor accused Shumpert of being insecure about her fame, treating her cruelly, and claims she was subjected to “extremely narcissistic behavior” throughout their marriage. The athlete has asked that the reason for the divorce be changed to “irretrievable broken bond.” In the filing, Taylor also accused her ex of being negligent towards their kids and cheating despite telling the public that infidelity wasn’t driving their breakup back in November.