For nearly two years, Anthony Edwards and Ayesha Howard have been separated by more than just opposing sides of a courtroom. Their dispute over financial support for their daughter, Aubri, stretched across Georgia and California, with both states becoming part of a fight over where the matter should ultimately be decided.

Along the way came competing filings, allegations of hidden California ties and even a declaration involving the mother of another of Edwards’ children. All the while, the Timberwolves star had been voluntarily supporting Aubri without a permanent judicial order. That lengthy battle has now produced its most consequential decision yet.

Court documents obtained by TMZ show a Georgia judge has ordered Edwards to pay Howard $3,222 per month in child support. Edwards had already paid $110,000 in voluntary interim support since January 2025, beginning with a $20,000 payment followed by $5,000 monthly payments leading up to trial. The final order came after Edwards’ legal team had accused Howard of using “the filings, the media campaign, the parallel proceedings in two states” to increase the cost of the dispute.

The jurisdictional fight began after Aubri’s birth in October 2024. Howard pursued the matter in Los Angeles County Superior Court, while Edwards filed in Georgia and argued California lacked personal jurisdiction over him. A California judge sided with Edwards on that issue in March 2025, ruling the state could not determine his child support obligations. Edwards had separately waived claims to legal custody, physical custody and visitation, stating in court filings that “the only issues to be resolved are financial in nature.”

The $3,222 figure was not arbitrary. Georgia’s child support guidelines cap the basic obligation table at $40,000 in combined monthly parental income, with $3,222 serving as the presumptive baseline for one child at that level. Courts can go higher through a high-income deviation, but Howard did not appear at the bench trial or present evidence supporting one. As a result, no upward deviation was applied.

Howard continued challenging the California jurisdiction ruling. In April 2026, her legal team submitted a sworn declaration from Alexandria Desroches, who shares a son, Amir, with Edwards. Desroches stated that Edwards had been voluntarily wiring her monthly support payments from an account connected to a Beverly Hills bank branch. Howard’s attorneys used that declaration to argue Edwards had undisclosed financial ties to California.

Another Anthony Edwards child support case reveals a key difference

But Desroches’ involvement also provides a revealing comparison. Separate May 2026 court filings from her own child support case listed Edwards’ gross monthly income at $3,364,911.06. That figure did not come from Howard’s case, an important distinction considering how closely the two proceedings became connected in public reporting.

The difference between the two support outcomes is striking. In Desroches’ case, the same $3,222 basic support obligation was supplemented by a $9,279 high-income deviation, producing a $12,500 monthly order for their son. Howard’s case received no such upward deviation after she did not appear at trial to present evidence supporting one, leaving Edwards’ obligation at the $3,222 baseline.

Edwards’ lead attorney accused Howard of abusing the legal process, writing, “In my decade of practicing law, I have never encountered a litigant who has so flagrantly and repeatedly abused the judicial process. It is a campaign of harassment, obstruction, and extortion that has made a mockery of the court systems in two states.”

Howard denied the extortion allegation. Edwards’ counsel had accused her of demanding a public social media apology and $500,000 before signing custody paperwork, while Howard maintained the money was unrelated to custody and was instead compensation for reputational and economic damages she said she suffered during the litigation. No court found that Howard committed criminal extortion.

The latest order ultimately leaves Georgia controlling the financial dispute. Howard was also ordered to pay Edwards’ attorney fees over her continued parallel litigation in California. And while the $3,222 monthly obligation is lower than the $5,000 Edwards had voluntarily been paying before trial, it is not technically a reduction: those earlier payments were voluntary interim support, making the July ruling the first permanent judicial child support order in Howard’s case.