20/20 Video: Brooks Ayers Deadbeat Dad? Who Is Nicolette Catanzarite?
Brooks Ayers is dating Real Housewives of Orange County’s Vicki Gunvalson as recently as June 15 for the birthday party of Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger.
Ayers has quite the storied past including his two arrests in 2010 (in Alabama and in Mississippi) for failing to make payments to his ex-wife, Kim Ayers, with whom he has three children, and his ex-girlfriend Nicolette Catanzarite, with whom he has a three-year-old.
He is reportedly tens of thousands of dollars in child support arrears for those four children. And a new 20/20 interview mentions the “deadbeat dad.”
Catanzarite, a 41-year-old hair salon owner from Carmel, Indiana claims: “He has not supported his child. He bailed on the hospital bill, the pediatrician bill, and left me with all of it.”
Catanzarite explains how they met: “I met Brooks in 2007 in Atlanta on a golf trip and he was just kind of a Southern charmer without a doubt. He did mention he was going through a divorce and was legally separated and that he had three children. It wasn’t appropriate that he would ask me to marry him while he was still married so he gave me a promise ring.”
Explaining away the pregnancy, while her “boyfriend” was still married, Catanzarite says Ayers claimed to have had a vasectomy and then he absconded shortly after their son’s birth: “No birthdays, no cards for Christmas, no phone calls, nothing.”
Her boyfriend had been acting strangely right before disappearing: “Within two or three weeks I started seeing kind of a different behavior from him,” says Catanzarite. ”He was obsessive, angry, moody and controlling with me. It was very strange.”
And he lied about being diagnosed with “nose cancer” and there was more: “Our electric bill was getting shut off, my phone was getting shut off and I didn’t know he hadn’t been paying the rent on the house,” says Catanzarite. ”He would always make up excuses and say the judge has held the escrow account and they’ve locked all their funds until the divorce was final.”
Catanzarite previously vented on her Facebook about raising their son Joey Ayers, 3, alone: “Well Brooks disappeared how weird, he disappeared on me and his young child with no support money no insurance nothing. Seems he has mentioned he is all caught up…and that he has a great relationship with all his kids? Maybe the ones from his wife of 20 years in Mississippi but could give two s**ts about my little guy! He’s a deadbeat and even worse a liar! Vicki, he isn’t caught up at all I have all supporting docs, more than any if you know! Yes I got cards everyday also and they said the same thing they say to you Vicki sorry but the truth us what will set you free and the truth should make real deadbeat dad pay all the arrearage for our son and not pretend or care if his existence! Scorned? No but Vicki I am a Mother and like you said last night ‘you’ll fight for your child’ well so will I!”
Kim Ayers was married to her ex-husband for 20 years. He suddenly started a new relationship with Catanzarite, he had a baby with Catanzarite, and then he filed for divorce (from Kim Ayers). In that order.
The ex-wife told RadarOnline.com in June 2011: “My ex-husband has a history of cheating. I’m offended by adultery, it’s not right. I don’t want him back. What I want is the child support. He ought to do the right thing and take care of his kids. Sometimes you don’t know people. You have a choice to make. Do your homework [Vicki] It’s not hard.”
Catanzarite told RadarOnline in June 2011 she thought her then-boyfriend was “legally separated” but he wasn’t: “I once thought of Brooks just what Vicki said on the show: he was the sweetest southern guy in the whole wide world. But over the last two and a half years, I have slowly realized things weren’t right. He’s the catch-me-if-you-can type of guy. He’s definitely a deadbeat dad.” The year prior, Catanzarite sued for child support and was awarded $700 per month child support plus arrears… she claims she’s received no payments yet.
Lastly, despite being “broke,” Brooks Ayers recently claimed on Twitter that he paid for Gunvalson’s mink fur coat and $15,000 veneers/ dental work himself: “I paid for my teeth and the fur with my own money,” he wrote.
Included are photos from Catanzarite’s Facebook page showing her, Brooks Ayers, and their son Joey Ayers.
PHOTO CREDIT – NICOLETTE CATANZARITE’S FACEBOOK
