Guess it only makes sense, then, that Eminem's estranged wife, Kimberly Mathers, made like the rapper's mother and filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit Monday against him, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Less than a week after the multiplatinum-selling rapper (otherwise known as Marshall Bruce Mathers III) filed for divorce from his wife of 14 months, Mrs. Mathers alleges in her suit that her husband is unfit for even partial custody of their 4-year-old daughter.
She's also asking for $10 million, claiming he defamed her during onstage antics, and in the lyrics to his song "Kim," a tune that, as the suit claims, "depicts horrific domestic violence against the wife, resulting in her grisly murder."
It's the same dollar figure that was requested by Eminem's mom, Debbie Mathers-Briggs, who sued her 27-year-old son last year, claiming he dissed her in songs and interviews. (She also filed another $1 million defamation suit against him earlier this month.)
Eminem, meanwhile, is seeking joint custody of their daughter, in a battle that began very publicly in June. The rapper was arrested for allegedly pistol-whipping a man caught kissing Eminem's wife outside a Warren, Michigan, bar.
According to Kimberly Mathers' complaint, the pair separated that day, and Eminem has spent only three nights at their Sterling Heights home since then. (He spent much of the summer traveling with Dr. Dre's all-star Up In Smoke concert tour.) Meanwhile, her lawyer, Neil Rockind, writes that Eminem "threatened to...evict her from the marital home and to leave her penniless," and cut off her American Express card.
Em's manager, Paul Rosenberg, told the Free Press the charges are without merit, and the hip-hopster would "go to the mat" for joint custody of his daughter. "It changes the tenor. Em's not going to be happy with that," he said. "Everybody on our side wanted to keep things low-key and work things out amicably."