Mike Fleiss’ estranged wife, Laura Fleiss, is seeking full physical and legal custody of their son, Ben, after accusing The Bachelor creator of domestic violence. The Blast was first to report the news.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Laura claimed that she has been the 4-year-old’s “primary caretaker since birth.”
“I am the parent who gets up with Ben every single time in the middle of the night; Mike sleeps in a different bedroom, or in the cottage, so that he can rest and not be worked at night,” she stated in the docs. “I had to arrange childcare for anytime I needed to leave the house, even if Mike was going to be home. … Mike usually wakes up and sees Ben in the morning for breakfast, then goes to his cottage to work, does his daily activities … then he will join us at the end of the day in the evening around dinner time.”
The Kauai Police Department in Hawaii previously confirmed to Us that Mike, 55, is “under police investigation” for domestic violence after his 31-year-old pregnant wife accused him of abuse.
In paperwork obtained by Us, Laura alleged that Mike “demanded” she have an abortion so that they could “just go back to the way” they were as a family of three.
“While Mike has frequently been verbally abusive towards me during our marriage, in recent weeks, he has become enraged, due to the fact I am pregnant with our second child,” the Miss America 2012 winner claimed in the docs. “Mike told me many times that he did not want us to have a second child.”
Laura alleged that Mike has threatened her several times, including telling her he was going to “shove [her] down the stairs” on July 6.
“I have been hiding in a hotel for the past several days with Ben,” the former pageant queen claimed. “And want to be able to return home without fear for myself, my son and my unborn child.”
Mike, for his part, filed for divorce on July 10. After Laura was granted a temporary domestic violence restraining order against her estranged husband, Mike responded to Laura’s accusations and alleged she was the one who attacked him. The entertainment producer also said that he believed his spouse was on birth control because he “did not want to have another child.”
A spokesperson for Warner Bros., the distributors of The Bachelor, released a statement to Us after news of the scandal broke: “We are aware of these serious allegations, and are looking into them.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
