Dr. Dre Ordered To Cough Up $300,000 A Month in support of Ex-Wife Nicole Young

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael R. Powell has ordered the hip hop superstar Dr. Dre to pay his estranged wife, Nicole Young, almost $300,000 in spousal support per month for the foreseeable future, potentially for life. Young, who filed for divorce from the Aftermath Entertainment founder last summer after 24 years of marriage, and began fighting for a bigger share of Dre’s estate after claiming she had been forced to sign a prenuptial agreement prior to their 1996 wedding.

She also accused Dre of domestic abuse, which the hip-hop icon has vehemently denied. Amid the ongoing legal battle, both Young and Dr. Dre, real name Andre Young, attended a court hearing in July to learn what had been decided in terms of temporary spousal support. Dre, 56,  must now pay his wife of 24 years monthly spousal support in the exact amount of $293,306 starting August 1. 

Last September, Nicole originally asked the court to order Dre to pay her monthly spousal fees in the amount of $1.9 million.) According to a report of the proceedings issued from the estranged couple’s hearing on July 20, these payments are to “continue in a like manner until the party receiving support remarries or enters into a new domestic partnership, death of either party or until further order of the court.” Dre was also ordered to continue to pay expenses on their Malibu and Pacific Palisades homes and to pay for Nicole’s health insurance.

Nicole in June last year filed for divorce from Dre on the grounds of irreconcilable differences; she and Dre were married on May 25, 1996, and share two adult children. According to court papers, she alleged that on April 2, 2020, the couple had a bitter fight and she was forced to leave her family home after “a night of Andre’s alcohol-induced, brutal rage, which included, but was not limited to, his screaming at her to ‘get the fuck out.’” She described their marriage as difficult and “earmarked by all types of abuse” and said finally she had had enough. According to a declaration Nicole submitted to the court in December, she alleged that Dre had held a gun to her head on two occasions and also punched her in the head and face on two occasions. She said his long-term abuse verbally and emotionally “decimated my personhood to the extent that I currently suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.” Dre has denied these allegations; the divorce is ongoing, with the next hearing set for October 6.