Ayesha Howard shared her criticisms towards Anthony Edwards after a Georgia judge ordered the Minnesota Timberwolves star to pay $3,222 per month in support for their child.
In an Instagram Story post shared on Wednesday (July 29), a little less than three weeks after the judge’s final order, Howard called out the “deeply troubling” negative backlash that she and their child have received, claiming some blogs have been paid to paint a narrative about Edwards that is “entirely false and disconnected from reality.”
“However, whether true or false, this situation highlights a devastating cycle in our community: the normalization of absent fathers and the lack of parental accountability,” she wrote. “Tragically, our community often feeds into this negativity, inadvertently applauding behavior that keeps Black children at the highest percentile of living in single-parent households.”
Howard presented what she said were statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, showing that 47 to 50 percent of Black children live without a resident father (her statistics appear to be accurate), to support her claim that “we are failing to uphold what it truly means to be men, fathers and providers.”
Howard goes on to seemingly accuse Edwards of being an absentee father to the three children he had outside of his relationship with longtime partner Shannon Jackson, whom he recently married. Howard alleges Edwards has never seen those three children or signed their respective birth certificates.
“A man can take the jersey off his back shoes off his feet and to sign for fans, yet his own three children are missing that same signature on their birth certificates and have never even met him,” she wrote.
Howard also refuted claims that any of the three mothers of his child are gold diggers.
“None of the mothers filed for support initially the father took each mother to court himself, choosing legal maneuvers over showing up for his children, effectively using the legal system to vanish from their lives,” she wrote.
“While the internet remains invested in rumors, these are the facts that matter,” she wrote. “We cannot correct a cycle of absence if we continue to excuse it. My legal team and I possess all the facts, evidence, and documentation regarding these proceedings, and we will move forward accordingly. Rumors will not dictate the final outcome.”
