Billionaire real estate developer Donald Bren testified Thursday in the child support case brought by his two adult children that he was shocked both times when his then-lover got pregnant.
Bren said he and Jennifer McKay Gold never dated exclusively, never talked about marriage or having a family, and had an “unconventional” relationship in which months would pass without them seeing each other.
Christie Bren, 22, and David Bren, 18, are seeking retroactive child support for the period of August 1988 through December 2002, claiming the money their father paid them – $3 million, plus money for college and graduate school until they are 25 – fell far short of reflecting the lifestyle he was enjoying. They have sued him for $400,000 a month each in child support retroactive to the time they were born, based on the average $4 million in monthly expenses Bren made to support his lifestyle, according to testimony by Gold.
Bren, chairman and chief executive of the Irvine Co., is one of the nation’s richest men, with an estimated net worth of $12 billion.
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