‘Dancing With the Stars’: John Schneider’s Ex May Get Portions of His Paychecks

Amid his legal troubles, which includes owing over $180,000 in alimony to his estranged wife, part of John Schneider‘s paychecks from Dancing With the Stars may be going to ex Elvira Schneider.

The Blast reports that Elvira’s legal team recently obtained documents from the Screen Actor’s Guild that allegedly say Schneider made over $1 million through various projects last year — after arguing that he did not have enough income to pay the $18,000 monthly alimony payments to Elvira.

A wage garnishment order was reportedly issued by the court, allowing his income, which includes what he’s making on DWTS, to help pay off the alimony owed to Elvira.

The couple is not yet officially divorced, despite the fact that she filed for it in 2014.

As previously reported, Schneider was found guilty of contempt earlier this year after failing to pay $185,000 in back spousal support. He cited financial hardships and said he was “willing but unable” to pay Elvira. He was ultimately sentenced to three days in the Los Angeles County Jail — but was released after a few hours due to overcrowding. He’s since asked the court to send him back to jail rather than pay Elvira, among other stipulations.

Schneider and professional dance partner Emma Slater have made it past three rounds of elimination thus far on the 27th season of Dancing With the Stars. The Blast reports that contestants make around $100,000 to appear on the ABC dancing competition, and then earn more money for each week they survive elimination.

But Schneider maintains that the reason he decided to join the cast of DWTS has nothing to do with the opportunity to earn a lot of money in a relatively short amount of time.

“I agreed to do this so I could have people thinking about me as a musician, not as, ‘Here’s the guy who drove an orange car,’” the Dukes of Hazzard star told Parade. “I accepted it because I’m headed deep back into music again. You’ll notice that every time [host] Tom [Bergeron] introduces me, that he says country music singer.

“I actually had a bunch of Top 10 and four No. 1 songs back in the ’80s,” he continued. “I’ve been doing that again and releasing a new single every Tuesday. So, really, that was my reason for doing this. Of course, it’s a great experience. I had no idea how hard it was going to be, but I wanted people to start thinking about me along the lines of music and being storyteller rather than just the guy that drove the orange car.”

In fact, the 58-year-old said he’s not even sure how much he’s making on the show.

“I’m enjoying Dancing With the Stars, but I didn’t do it as a payday because I owe my soul to the company store,” Schneider maintained. “It doesn’t matter what I do, I get the same salary anyway, so I don’t even know what Dancing With the Stars pays, and I don’t want to know. I believe in cramming as much experience and as many different things into your life to round you out as you possibly can.”

He previously stated on the show that he hopes it will help him earn back the respect of his adult children, Leah, Chasen and Karis, who he says are currently not speaking to him.

Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.