Spurs' Bryn Forbes settles custody dispute with former girlfriend from Lansing
Judy Putnam, Lansing State Journal Judy Putnam
Forbes agreed to pay Taylor $50,000 in lieu of child support. She will have 60 overnights a year to take place in Texas.
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Lansing State Journal
LANSING – The NBA's Bryn Forbes will get full custody of his two young sons in an agreement with his former girlfriend, Raelynn Taylor of Lansing, after a lengthy dispute in Ingham County Circuit Court.

Forbes, 24, a former MSU and Sexton High School basketball player, lives in San Antonio where he plays for the San Antonio Spurs, earning $1.3 million a year in his second professional season.

He agreed to pay Taylor $50,000 in lieu of child support. She will have 60 overnights a year to take place in Texas with their two boys, Carter, 4, and Leo, 1. Forbes will pay for her expenses to travel from Michigan and provide accommodations. The agreement also requires the kids to be available for chats with their mother three times a week.

The agreement was signed by Judge Janelle Lawless Wednesday.

“Even though this was a difficult and long litigation, I think in the end, both parties were able to come to an agreement that they believe this is in the best interest of their children,” said Stuart Shafer, Forbes’ attorney.

Because of her much smaller income, about $1,500 a month at an eyeglasses store to his $108,000 a month NBA salary, a standard child support formula would have him pay $143 per month to cover her parenting time.

Shafer said child support would be waived because of the agreement. He said Forbes is looking for a condo or other home so that Taylor will be more comfortable in spending time with her sons.

“We don’t question at all that she loves the children. She’s their mother,” Shafer said.

Through her attorney, Kristina Lyke, Taylor didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Related: NBA's Bryn Forbes in custody battle for two sons with ex-girlfriend

Taylor said in a previous interview that she raised her sons mostly by herself without child support while Forbes focused on his basketball career. She’s a 2010 graduate of Eastern High School. She began dating Forbes while he was at Sexton. He graduated in 2012.

Their son Carter was born in 2013 while Forbes was traveling overseas with Cleveland State University's basketball team. Forbes has cited his son’s birth as one of the reasons he asked to transfer to MSU in 2014 for his junior and senior years.

He signed with the Spurs in July 2016 and was living in San Antonio when son Leo was born December 2016. Forbes flew to Lansing for his birth.

When Leo was just a week old, Taylor moved with her sons to San Antonio to live with Forbes to try to make their family work. She said their relationship had been rocky during her second pregnancy.

A bitter breakup followed in March, and Taylor moved back to Michigan with infant Leo. Carter came back a few weeks later with his paternal grandmother.

In June, however, after the couple tried and failed to reconcile, Forbes took both boys back to Texas without Taylor's consent.

Taylor tried to get police to return the children to her custody. Shafer argued that the couple had agreed to live in San Antonio with the children so Forbes was returning them to their home.

Both parents filed for full custody. An investigator in July recommended they stay with Forbes in Texas, though she expressed concern about his time on the road.

In court records, Forbes questioned Taylor’s ability to properly care for the children, citing drinking and partying behavior. Some witnesses said Taylor often left her children in the care of others.

The case was before a Friend of the Court referee when Forbes made an offer to settle the case. Taylor agreed.

Forbes and Taylor also agreed in the settlement to pay their own attorney fees in the case. Forbes had earlier paid $10,000 toward Taylor's attorney costs and prior to the settlement she had filed a motion requesting that Forbes pay about $19,000 more.

Since leaving MSU, Forbes' career is climbing. Though he was not selected in the 2016 NBA draft and is considered small for a shooting guard at 6’3”, he made the Spurs' roster in 2016. This season, his second year, he’s averaging 7 points per game in 77 games.

Sue Forbes, Bryn Forbes' mother, has relocated to San Antonio to help care for her grandsons. She closed her practice in East Lansing, Mindful Movement and Physical Therapy, and put the building up for sale.

Forbes told her clients earlier this year she was closing the practice, which she had started with business partner Jolynn Nelson in 2007. Nelson died of cancer in 2015.

In a letter to clients in January, she said she initially thought she would spend the summer in San Antonio to help with the children then come back. She then extended it November, then to January. She said she was unable to find someone to take over the business and she was losing money. It closed at the end of March.

“It has been so very difficult for me to imagine my life being separate from Mindful Movement ... but I know that with the right care these 2 little people will do so much more for the world than I have done,” she wrote in the letter.