The actor barely sees his fourth child, Sophia Law, who was an unplanned pregnancy with model Samantha Burke. But he pays her child support.
Sometimes, people make mistakes they are not prepared to take accountability for. It takes them a while to understand the monumental mistake they have made to even think of starting on the reparations. And, in Hollywood, multiple actors have made what may seem to them expensive mistakes. For actor Jude Law, something like that happened when he had a brief fling with a model in 2008.
Already a father-of-three at the time, he had no plans to have another child but model Samantha Burke got pregnant. She was a Hooters waitress living in New Jersey when she met The Talented Mr. Ripley actor. He was in New York City filming for his first Sherlock Holmes movie. Burke and she spent a fun one week and neither had expected to be bonded for life.
"I instantly knew who he was, but he seemed really funny, he was cracking jokes with people and he included me in that," when she met him at a nightclub, she said, as per the Evening Standard. "The next thing I knew I was on the pavement outside, being twirled around — it was a lot of fun. He was funny and very down-to-earth," she added. But, she had no illusions that their fling would be anything but that.
"I knew our relationship would not continue," Burke revealed in a 2009 interview, as per HollywoodLife. "And I was okay with that," she said, adding that it was the reason why she didn't tell Law right away when she found out she was pregnant. "I needed time to come to terms with it myself," the mom-of-one said. When she did decide to inform him, she found that his phone number was disconnected. Burke reportedly had to contact his publicist's office to get in touch with him about her pregnancy, as per Gtldna.co.uk.
Not new to controversy, Law had by then already ruined his marriage to actress Sadie Frost, the mother of his first three children, by having an affair with actress Sienna Miller in 2003. His engagement with Miller had also broken up since he had cheated on her with his children's nanny in 2005.
When Law found out that he was going to become a father for the fourth time, he ordered a DNA test because he wanted to be "100% certain", according to Daily Mail. However, he did say that if the child was his - and she is, as was confirmed - then he would support the child. After Sophia Law was born, Burke said that she hadn't even received a card from her father.
According to Evening Standard, when she was asked if they have plans to meet in the future, she said, "There are no plans for it to happen at the moment, but I know he's busy." The then-25-year-old hoped that the Sherlock Holmes actor would stand by his daughter when he meets her. "Once you see her face, how can you deny it?" Burke said. "She has his [Jude's] chin and nose, and she does a little pout that I noticed he's done before. I'm very hopeful it will work out for Sophia's sake. He's a great father to his three kids. She's his daughter, and I believe he'll come through. It would be great if we can have a friendship and be cordial. Hopefully, he'll be a big part of her life and she'll be proud to have him as her father," she had added.
However, the Florida native didn't get to meet him until Sophia turned five months old in March 2010. They met in Miami to discuss child support, which is estimated to be around $2.5 million, as per Daily Mail. HollywoodLife said that he pays $6,000 a month in child support, including schooling and medical fees until Sophia turns 18.
In 2016, it was reported that he barely ever meets her and until she had turned seven, he was seeing her only once a year. It is not known what the arrangements are currently. "The last time they were together was in September 2015, when her mom brought Sophia to London for a short visit," a friend of Burke's told HollywoodLife in 2016. "Sophia is such a sweetheart, and I know that Jude loves all his children. There would be a lot for him to love about Sophia if he would spend more time with her."
References:
https://hollywoodlife.com/2016/12/08/jude-law-love-child-daughter-sophia-samantha-burke/
https://www.gtldna.co.uk/knowledge-base/child-dna-test-proves-jude-law-is-the-father/
