Add The New York Post on Google Former NBA champ Paul Pierce and Princess Santiago, an event director in Los Angeles, still are at odds over a custody agreement for their son, King Rafael, whom they welcomed in February, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.
Santiago — who previously filed a paternity suit in January, claiming Pierce was the father of her son — provided alleged text messages with the NBA Hall of Famer as part of their ongoing case over custody and support.
“I just wanted to let you know that your son is here. He was born today,” Princess wrote to Pierce on Feb. 6, per TMZ. “If you’d like to see him tomorrow, let me know.”
It does not appear that Santiago received a response from Pierce.
The outlet published an image of another alleged text exchange dated April 13, which showed Paul as saying: “Just found out today officially that’s my son so anyway I can at least see him.”
Santiago responded two days later and said, “Hello and congratulations, Paul. 99.99%. Anyway, you had the opportunity to take the test I paid for either before or after the birth.
“Instead, you chose not to and ignored my entire pregnancy with him; you prioritized love interests, vacations, other people and things over your son with wanting to know the truth.
“I’d appreciate you having a bit more respect for me as his mother and your son from here forward. Ive never kept you from King before or after his birth and I still won’t. I do appreciate that you’re beginning to step forward and finally acknowledge him.”
View this post on Instagram The message continued but was cut off in the TMZ image.
Santiago, in another alleged message dated April 30, said, “If you want to be a father to him, cool. If not, I’m not going to beg you.”
Santiago is asking the court for sole legal and physical custody of their child, as well as child support payments.
The amount she is seeking for the payments has been redacted.
Santiago, who said she is unable to work because she has to care for her son, claimed Paul refused to turn over all of the relevant financial info to determine how much he had available for support payments.
She alleged Paul has rejected her efforts to co-parent.
Paul filed court docs opposing Santiago’s previous request for $30,000 per month in child support, plus another $100K for legal fees in the case, TMZ reported on July 31.
At the time, Paul, who said he was willing to provide support to Santiago, explained that his income was steadily decreasing and that his checks from his previous gig with Fox Sports 1 were coming to an end in September 2026.
In January, TMZ reported that Santiago filed a paternity suit claiming Pierce is the father of her son, and requesting genetic testing from Pierce.
Pierce and his ex-wife Julie Landrum have three kids together: daughter Prianna and sons Prince and Adrian.
Pierce played 15 of his 19 NBA seasons with the Celtics and won a championship and Finals MVP with Boston in 2008.
The Celtics retired his No. 34 jersey in February 2018, after her retired the year before.
