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Mary Jo Eustace Celebrates ‘Absolute Win’ After Facing Ex-Husband Dean McDermott in Court Over Unpaid Spousal Support (Exclusive)

Mary Jo Eustace
Mary Jo Eustace attends party at SkyBar at the Mondrian Los Angeles in 2014.Charley Gallay/Getty Images

Justice served. Mary Jo Eustace challenged ex-husband Dean McDermott in court on Thursday, March 9, after filing a contempt of court charge against him for allegedly not paying spousal support payments.

“I filed the paperwork myself for the contempt of court,” Eustace told Us, after representing herself in court. “The judge was very clear that it’s a criminal charge; contempt of court is jail time.”

Eustace and McDermott married in July 1993 and officially divorced in February 2006 after Dean began an affair with Tori Spelling. Spelling and McDermott then married less than three months later, on May 7.

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McDermott, the Scared Wheatless author claimed, owes her “over $100,000. He just stopped paying two years ago for our original support, and he didn’t pay child support.”

Eustace said she re-negotiated an agreement with McDermott in September 2015 but stopped receiving payments in October, prompting her to look into filing for the contempt of court charge.

While they were married, Eustace and McDermott had one son, Jack, 18, who currently lives with Eustace in the L.A.-area. Jack spent part of last year living with Spelling, McDermott and their four children—the couple welcomed their fifth child in March of this year—in Los Angeles while Eustace worked in Canada.

Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott
Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott attend the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s 26th Annual A Time For Heroes Family Festival in 2015. Angela Weiss/Getty Images

“It has been hard on my son, too, seeing all those children have so much. It’s been hard, and Jack has been so gracious about it.”

How much the family actually does have is unclear. Spelling and McDermott have been plagued by reports of financial issues for years. In December of last year, Spelling and McDermott were sued by City National Bank for nearly $200,000 after failing to repay a $400,000 bank loan.

But in February, Spelling’s mom, Candy, threw a baby shower for Spelling with an alleged $40,000 price tag. When Mary Jo saw these reports, “it just didn’t make a lot of sense. I started to laugh, because you can’t write this.”

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Eustace said she believed McDermott’s rationale for not paying her was the “usual mantra” of “I don’t have money, I can’t afford.” “But,” she noted, “I don’t buy that mantra. If you want to pay it, you find a way to pay it, and that’s the truth.”

Despite McDermott’s uncertain financial status, Eustace revealed that with the presiding judge’s encouragement, she and McDermott were able to agree on a payment plan outside of the courtroom. “I think that it’s an absolute win,” she said.

Related: Tori Spelling’s Family Album

And though she said she has no relationship with Spelling and McDermott and is not interested in having one, Eustace insisted she doesn’t wish the couple ill will. “This wasn’t vengeful,” she told Us. “I don’t like seeing the father of my son in that situation, so I wish him the best moving forward and being able to take care of his family. This was just really standing up for myself and my family.”

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