It’s no secret that celebrity breakups can get very ugly,
especially when large sums of money, children, or legal proceedings are involved.
However, when Marvel star Jeremy Renner divorced actress and model Sonni Pacheco,
nobody thought things could get so bad. Let’s rewind on their sadly brutal custody battle.
As well as modeling, Pacheco has also done some work as an actress.
She got a small part in Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol, where Renner was starring.
The couple started dating until they welcomed their daughter Ava two years later.
This period of their relationship is very mysterious, with some sources reporting that the
pair split before the arrival of their daughter and decided to try again after Ava was born.
According to them, Jeremy wanted Ava to have the best family possible, so he allowed Sonni to live
with him and his flatmate even after they broke up. However, other sources state that the couple
stayed together the whole time, but the actor didn’t want to confirm the relationship to avoid
scrutiny. Whatever the truth is, it’s clear that things were complicated from the start.
The pair finally tied the knot in January 2014.
However, Renner didn’t acknowledge their marriage until September of that same year.
In an interview with Capitol File Magazine, he confessed that he had secretly married to protect
his wife’s privacy. “I want her to go about her day without being bothered,” he explained.
In the same interview, tha actor talked about his love for his daughter,
saying that he now knew unconditional love. “The reason why I go do things is now for her. So,
thank you for that Ava, because it’s freed me from myself,” he added.
Although the actors’ marriage and family could have seemed ideal from the outside,
Pacheco filed for divorce in December 2014, less than a year after their wedding. She
cited “irreconcilable differences” and claimed that the prenuptial agreement she had signed was
fraudulent. In the divorce filing, the model also demanded Renner to return her passport,
birth certificate, and social security card, which she claims were stolen.
All this might have seemed unexpected from the outside, but it seems like friends of
the couple saw the divorce coming. "This has been on the cards for a while. They are just
not compatible," a source told E!News. This person also predicted the divorce was going to
get ugly and assured that the actor’s priority was his daughter. “Jeremy loves Ava so much
and hates that she will live her life with her parents split up,” they added.
According to this same source, Jeremy regretted getting married almost as soon as he did it.
However, he tried to make it work to provide Ava with a solid family unit. Perhaps we should have
seen it coming, since the actor told Elle magazine that he didn’t think about marriage often.
In the interview, he stated, "Don't forget how the institution of marriage came about."
At the time, there were rumors saying the real reason for the breakup was Jeremy’s sexuality.
However, he denied being gay in an interview with The Hollywood reporter,
sayin “I want my personal life to be personal, and it’s not f—ing true.” Many also believed that the
couple’s 20-year age difference could have been a reason for their breakup.
When she filed for divorce, Pacheco requested to have the sole physical custody of Ava,
although she did want shared legal custody. She argued that Renner’s home was unsafe for
their then almost-two-year-old. One of these hazards was an unfenced Koi pond. However,
the actor later explained that the pond was equipped with lasers so he would be alerted if his
daughter ever fell in. Pacheco also claimed that Ava could easily access Renner’s gun collection.
In the papers, the model claimed, “I have been the parent that cares for Ava on a daily basis.”
She explained that, when Renner spent one-on-one time with his daughter, it was because she
insisted. Pacheco also wanted child support and for Renner to pay for her legal fees.
A source revealed to US Weekly that Jeremy was afraid Sonni would flee the United States and
go to Canada, her native country, with their daughter. Meanwhile, Pachecho claimed that
Renenr had stolen her passport to prevent her from visiting her parents in Canada.
The Hawkeye actor responded to his ex-wife’s claims in February 2015 with his own court filing,
in which he requested joint custody of Ava. Finally, the two actors agreed to share
custody of their daughter, with Renner paying 13 thousand dollars monthly in child support.
He didn’t have to pay any spousal support thanks to the prenuptial agreement.
However, in April 2018, Renner’s Marvel salary made him an “extraordinary-high-income-earner”.
Because of this, he was set to pay 292 thousand dollars as additional child support that year.
The former couple came to a new financial agreement, which stipulated that the actor’s
yearly payments from 2018,2019, and 2020 would not exceed 200 thousand dollars. Any
amount over that quantity would go into an account destined for Ava’s education
expenses. any leftover money in the account will be made available to able when she turns 27.
Things might have stopped there. However, in 2019,
Pacheco came forward with some horrific accusations. According to TMZ, she filed a
request for sole physical and legal custody of Ava with the Superior Court of California. She
also asked for monitored visitation when Renner was with their daughter. In the court filing,
she alleged that Renner had talked about killing her and himself in 2015. According to the actress,
a nanny overheard a conversation where the Marvel actor said he would kill his ex
and himself because it was better for Ava to have no parents than to have Sonni as a mother.
In a subsequent court filing, Renner denied the allegations, claiming that Pacheco was unstable,
that the actress was upset their relationship had ended, and that she was looking for a money grab.
Disney reportedly considered replacing the actor in the wake of those allegations,
but in the end he continued to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic universe.
Neither side commented publicly on the accusations apart from Renner denying them. However, Pacheco
later accused Renner of threatening to kill her according to court documents retrieved by TMZ.
She also claimed that the actor had stuck a gun in his mouth one time, and that he shot
into the ceiling while their daughter was in the room. The actress also stated that her
ex-husband used drugs and even left cocaine in the bathroom counter, where Ava could reach it.
At the time, a representative for Renner told US Weekly,
“This is a matter for the court to decide. It’s important to note the dramatizations
made in Sonni’s declaration are a one-sided account made with a specific goal in mind.”
Apparently, the actor even went through drug testing to prove the accusations were false.
In an interview with Men’s Health, Renner addressed the allegations, saying
“I don’t respond publicly or privately to nonsense. It only empowers it.”
He also talked about his daughter, saying that he made time to go see her in London,
even if he had to fly from LA just to spend a few hours with her. The actor insisted on being
able to visit Ava every weekend, no matter if he was working or not. People close to the Renner
even warned him that he could get fired from doing this, but he didn’t back down. ”Acting
and everything else goes out the window,” the Marvel star explained, “until my daughter says,
‘I want to hang out with my friends, and I don’t want to be around you so much, Daddy.’ ”
In 2020, the actor requested the court to lower his child support fees during the pandemic,
since his monthly income had been reduced due to COVID-19. Later that year, he accused his
ex of misusing money from Ava’s trust fund. Renner’s team that Pacheco removed more than
$50,000 from the fund in less than two years and used them “for her own personal benefit.”
The model made a statement denying the accusations.
“I am sick of being continually bullied, having my name slandered,
and the truth muted,” she told US Weekly . She said that her top priority was her child’s safety,
and added: “Over the years, it’s hard to fathom what I’ve seen and what people have told me
they’ve seen in regards to Jeremy’s disturbing actions while our child is in his care.”
In a different interview with Page Six magazine, Sonni claimed that the
allegations were made in an attempt to reduce child support fees. “This is a
small insight of what I have been dealing with over the years,” the actress added.
In July 2020, Pacheco filed court documents accusing Renner of having a “long history of
alcohol and drug abuse which has persisted since before the parties’ marriage, through divorce
and post-judgment.” She asked a judge to require him to do routine drug testing.
Renner responded in the court documents saying that “There is absolutely no basis
for this Court to grant the requested relief with respect to a drug test.”
In the end, the court decided it was not necessary for the actor to undergo drug testing,
but he did have to pay 40 thousand dollars to his ex-wife to cover for her legal fees.
Pacheco also accused Renner of flying several pretty girls to his mansion in Reno, Nevada
where they partied without masks and shared photos
of themselves wearing t-shirts emblazoned with 'Camp Renner'.
Both actors are currently sharing custody of their daughter. Jeremy is still a part of the
Marvel Cinematic universe. Although there have been continuous rumors about Disney
recasting him because of his divorce scandal, his TV show Hawkeye was released in 2021.
Sonni has a sculpture studio and sells her work. But, with so many court filings,
we would not be surprised if future accusations arise from either side.
We wish that both partners decide what’s best for their daughter.