Brooks Ayers, boyfriend of Vicki Gunvalson, is fighting back against his baby’s mother’s claims that he is a ‘deadbeat dad’ who ran out on his 3-year-old son. Brooks recently announced that he would be filing a suit against ABC for airing Nicole Catanzarite‘s accusations on an episode of 20/20, but he hasn’t done so — yet.
According to Radar Online, Brooks is giving ABC a chance to air a retraction before formally filing suit. In addition to that, he’s setting the record straight about what kind of father he really is via his lawyer.
“Brooks is very close with his three children from his marriage, and he is very keen to have a relationship with his son, but Nicolette won’t allow him access for the time being,” his lawyer Alexander Rufus-Isaacs explained. This comes after Nicolette told 20/20 that Brooks had allegedly abandoned her and the child and left her to pay all of their son’s medical bills alone.
Brooks has denied all of Nicolette’s claims both on-camera to his girlfriend‘s Real Housewives of Orange County co-stars and family and off-camera to press. The only thing we know for sure about Brooks is that he was arrested twice for not paying child support to his estranged wife, Kim Ayers. (Note that Brooks is still technically married!)
As for Nicolette’s claims that she has no way of getting in contact with Brooks, Rufus-Isaacs says, “She traveled to California in January 2012 and met with Brooks and Vicki, since then he has had the same cell phone number and the same e-mail, so there is no credence to these claims that he disappeared on her.”
Unfortunately for Brooks, he didn’t have the best reputation before Nicolette’s 20/20 episode. News of his arrest and failure to pay child support had hit the web long before we knew who Nicolette was. Once the episode aired, things got worse for Brooks and his lawyer expressed disappointed with Nicolette’s actions. “They have a dispute and it should have remained private. It was wrong of her to go public and smear his reputation.”
Hopefully for the child’s sake, Brooks Ayers is telling the truth and he and 20/20 will be able to come to some sort of agreement. Otherwise there is going to be a fight.
