Marlon Wayans filed court documents for joint custody of his 1-year-old daughter, Axl, in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday.
Marlon Wayans has officially filed a response after his ex, Brittany Moreland, filed for full custody of their 18-month-old daughter, Axl July Ivory Wayans.
According to court documents obtained by ET, the 51-year-old comedian and actor is requesting joint physical and legal custody of the former couple's daughter. In his court documents, filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Wayans also filed a voluntary declaration of parentage, which he signed in December.
The comedian is also requesting that reasonable expenses of pregnancy and birth be shared jointly, as well as attorney fees and other fees that arise over the course of the custody battle. Moreland -- who listed in her own court documents that she's an "unemployed graduate student" in California -- had previously requested that Wayans cover those fees.
Wayans' response comes more than three months after Moreland requested full custody and for Wayans to receive visitation rights, a notion the comedian scoffed at in a revealing interview with The Shade Room.
Wayans -- who also shares 23-year-old, Kai, who came out as transgender in November, and 21-year-old, Shawn, with ex Angelica Zachary -- explained why he didn't like being named as a "visitor" to his daughter, Axl.
"It's the classic case of a good, loving, responsible father shelling out over $18K per month for a 1-year-old, and an entitled woman decides she wants more," Wayans told the outlet. "My mama and dem would've lost their minds for $2K."
"Do you pay all that money per month and be called a 'visitor'? Do the math. This is delusional. I will let the lawyers and God do what they do," he continued. "I'll be creating art from a broken heart. I got nothing but love. Even when it's bad, it's good...it's GOD."
Wayans also noted to The Shade Room, "I've had two children before this. I've never had this problem. I'm a good man with a good heart and strong sense of responsibility, but I refuse to be used and discredited."
The latest in Wayans' custody battle comes a little over a year after the patriarch of the Wayans family, Howell Wayans, died at 86 in April 2023. The actor's mother, Elvira, died in 2020. She was 81.
"In my life right now, I have so much stuff that can be depressing. I lost my mom recently, I lost my dad three days ago. I realize that the only thing that saves me is the stage," he explained in an interview with Good Morning America. "Because when I'm hurting, those laughs that I hear from other people healing from my pain, I realize my purpose. And I think it's important for all of us to do what comedians do, which is look at this world, look at this life, and always try to spend your life trying to find smiles. And that's what I do on the stage."
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