Per new paperwork, something about Jimmy Butler and Kaitlin Nowak’s situation has changed. The two have had a tangled relationship involving a legal battle over their children, child support, and childcare expenses. However, for now, their three children appear to have both parents under one roof.
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As court documents filed Wednesday and TMZ revealed, Nowak recently shared that she and Butler have worked out “a comprehensive agreement on a parenting plan” and that the two “are living with one another.” She added that “there are other circumstances which can be presented to the court.” The circumstances have not been spelled out in the paperwork itself.
The filing further states she expects the matter to be fully resolved within 45 to 60 days, and she’s asking the judge to treat that timeline as sufficient reason to keep the case on the docket rather than close it out entirely.
There’s a lot that goes into just how far the two had to come to get there. Nowak has generally kept much of her personal life away from the spotlight. She is a model and entrepreneur who reportedly studied advertising, public relations, and applied communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Her relationship with Butler dates back to 2019, the same year their daughter, Rylee, was born, for which Butler skipped the Heat’s season opener. Their first son, Brayan, came along in 2022. Their second son, Kian, followed in 2023, right around when things between Butler and Nowak fell apart.
That October, Nowak took the first real step in what would become a nearly three-year legal fight, filing a petition to establish paternity and child support. Two months later, in December 2023, the two sides worked out a partial deal: shared custody, with Butler agreeing to pick up the nanny’s cost on a temporary basis. It wasn’t until February 2024 that a judge made it official, naming Butler the legal and biological father of all three kids and ordering him to pay Nowak $55,000 a month in support.
That didn’t turn out to be the end of it, though.
By December 2024, Butler had filed a motion asking the court to require an accounting of how Nowak was spending the additional $10,000 per month earmarked for a nanny.
Butler’s legal team argued that Nowak was unemployed and unwilling to seek employment, further questioning whether an additional nanny was still necessary when Butler was exercising equal parenting time with the older children. In one filing, Butler’s attorneys argued that there was “no legitimate reason” for Nowak to require both a nanny and for Butler to cover the expense.
“Mother is unemployed and refuses to seek employment,” the filing stated. “With one child in preschool and Father exercising equal timesharing with the older children, there is no legitimate reason for Mother to insist both on a nanny and that Father pay for that nanny.
“It must be pointed out that the Father and Mother were never married. Mother is not entitled to live as if she is married to a National Basketball Association (NBA) player.”
The dispute became public in January 2025, overlapping with Butler’s exit from the Miami Heat, where a trade request and multiple suspensions preceded his departure to the Golden State Warriors.
Even in the middle of those shaky times, Butler agreed to wire Nowak $30,000 toward her legal fees, an amount that could later be deducted from his support payments, according to court records.
On January 10, 2025, Butler’s attorney withdrew the nanny-accounting motion “without prejudice,” citing active settlement discussions between the two sides.
That withdrawal, as it turns out, marked the beginning of the de-escalation that led to this week’s filing. Per reports, the case had already been dismissed once earlier this August before Nowak’s new filing asked the court to keep it open a little longer.
Neither Butler nor Nowak has said whether the new arrangement means anything beyond co-parenting, and neither seems in a hurry to clarify it publicly.