Former Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider‘s ex-wife claims he pulled in over $180,000 for his time on Dancing With the Stars last year, but she says he’s hiding the money from her despite the fact he owes the same amount in back support.
Elvira “Elly” Schneider is set to face off against her ex-husband over the $18,500 month temporary spousal support he was ordered to pay her during their divorce. The actor and country singer claims he does not have enough income to cover it, but she claims he’s making a significant amount.
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Court documents obtained by The Blast say that Elvira plans on calling the directors of payroll for DWTS and the Tyler Perry show The Haves and Have Nots, which airs on Oprah Winfrey‘s OWN network, to question them on what Schneider was paid for his work.
In the documents, Elvira said Schneider has “attempted to utilize numerous deceptions and trickery to avoid paying spousal support, including funneling income through his girlfriend and business partner, Alicia Allain and their various shell companies, particularly Maven Entertainment.”
She claims Schneider told her “on numerous occasions that his intent is to starve her into abandoning her spousal claims.” She alleges that in 2018, she garnished $18,544 of Schneider’s income but says that amount is “minuscule” compared to the $180K plus he owes her.
Elvira previously got a wage garnishment order to get money paid to Schneider while he was on DWTS, but believes he “employed some type of trickery to have his employer, Entertainment Partners … disburse his earnings in such a way to circumvent the garnishment” and keep her from getting paid. She claims Schneider’s employer refused to tell her exactly where the money was being paid.
In documents, she said she believes he pulled in $850,000 to $1.2 million in 2017, citing that he is a working actor, plus income from Dukes of Hazzard events and his music recording career.
In February, Schneider told PopCulture.com that he would rather return to jail after he served only nine hours of his three-day sentence last summer.
“Well, you can hope for no more jail time, but I think there’s more jail time, and that’s okay,” Schneider told PopCulture.com. “It’s like hoping not to die. Guess what, it’s going to happen. There’s jail time. I don’t know how long. It could be as long as 15 days.”
He said he’d rather be sentenced to jail than pay the alimony to his former spouse, because he doesn’t see any way to come up with the money she’s requesting.
“We’re on the third month of the fifth year, since she filed for divorce,” Schneider said. “The only thing that’s happened is I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of which was mine, some of which was borrowed. She has spent everything she had, lawyers made money, we’re still not divorced, and I’ve been to jail and I’m probably going back. Where’s the justice in that? Come on.”
