Spoiler Alert! This article gives away the show’s entire plot, so proceed at your own risk.
“Margo’s Got Money Troubles” follows Margo Millet, a college freshman and aspiring writer who is seduced by her English professor, Mark, and ends up pregnant. Mark, who is married with kids, wants nothing to do with her or the baby and leaves her to face the pregnancy and birth alone. Margo’s mother, Shyanne, a former Hooters waitress who raised Margo on her own, warns her about how hard single motherhood can be. She eventually comes around, though, accepting Margo’s decision to keep the baby and helping her shop for the basics.
After her baby boy, Bodhi, is born, Margo drops out of college and teaches herself how to be a mom. All the while, her savings quickly drain away. Facing financial collapse and unable to afford the childcare she would need to return to work, she has no choice but to ask the professor for financial help.
In response, Mark buys her silence by offering her $15,000 to be placed in a trust fund for Bodhi, in exchange for her signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and never contacting him again.
The money does nothing to solve her immediate problems, but Margo accepts and signs the NDA anyway. Needing cash fast and a job she can do from home, she turns to OnlyFans, where she puts her writing skills to work bringing sci-fi fantasies to life.
Meanwhile, Margo reconnects with her father, Jinx, a former wrestler and recovering addict. Now sober, he turns out to be a wonderful grandfather, and he eventually moves in to help with Bodhi. Having just lost two college roommates who couldn’t handle Bodhi’s crying at night, Margo agrees, on one condition: that Jinx never uses drugs again.
Later, when Jinx asks about Bodhi’s father, Margo reveals it is Mark. Jinx goes to Mark’s office at the college and breaks his hand with a handshake. In return, Mark obtains a restraining order against Jinx.
Two episodes later, Mark changes his tune. Now aware of Margo’s booming OnlyFans career and freshly separated from his wife who discovered the affair, he files for custody of Bodhi on the grounds that Margo is an unfit mother.
Where My Family-Lawyer Brain Kicked in to Overdrive
Margo’s lawyer, Lace, an ex-wrestler turned attorney (played by the wonderful Nicole Kidman), warns her about the risks and costs of a court battle. Because Mark comes from money, he can afford to fund litigation that Margo simply cannot. Instead, Lace suggests mediation.
As a family law attorney, I tend to agree. Custody battles can become very expensive, very quickly. And mediation, or any other form of alternative dispute resolution, when both parties are motivated and willing to settle, is often the most cost- and time-effective way to resolve things.
That said, Lace’s assessment that Mark holds all the cards overstates his position. The facts are not favorable for Margo, but Mark does not have an airtight case either.
Where Margo Has Leverage
First, in Ohio, Margo could file for child support retroactive to Bodhi’s date of birth, along with reimbursement of her birthing costs. Given Mark’s job as a college professor and his overall earning ability, $15,000 comes nowhere close to covering his child support obligation until Bodhi turns 18. On top of that, one could argue the $15,000 was a gift, entirely separate from child support, meaning it might not factor into the support calculation at all.
Second, by filing for custody, Mark himself broke the very NDA that was supposed to keep Margo away from him. One could argue she is now free to alert the college’s administration of his behavior. And even if she isn’t, her mother, father, and friends never signed an NDA, so they can report him. Of course, if Mark loses his job, his ability to pay for child support takes a serious hit. So, going through with that report is probably not the best move in the long run but still, it remains a meaningful piece of leverage to soften his position.
Last, Mark is a stranger to Bodhi. He has seen the baby exactly once and has never held him. In Ohio, absent a true showing that Bodhi is in danger in Margo’s care, the court would most likely order a very gradual schedule, giving Mark and Bodhi time to get acclimated before Mark is granted any custody or regular parenting time. In addition, so long as Bodhi is breastfeeding, an overnight stay would be unlikely.
Raising those three points, clearly and firmly, before mediation could have changed the leverage in the room considerably.
Where the Show Departs from Reality
There are also several significant differences between what the show presents and how things would actually play out in real life (at least in Ohio):
- Mediation: At mediation, Mark shows no willingness to budge from his position that he should have sole custody of Bodhi. He even goes so far as to say he would only let Margo have visitation if it were supervised. That is, of course, a completely untenable position for Margo, who (for the record) has done a wonderful job raising Bodhi on her own so far! Typically, when two parties are this far apart, that is where mediation ends. In the show, they somehow come back for a second session.
- Psychological evaluation: Mark requests a psychological evaluation of This absolutely can happen in custody battles. Typically, though, if one party is ordered to undergo an evaluation, the other party is ordered to undergo one as well. Mark would have been subject to the same requirement.
- Custody: The word “custody” gets thrown around frequently in the show, and there seems to be some confusion about what it actually means. In Ohio, custody is the power to make decisions for a minor child: where the child goes to school, what extracurriculars he takes part in, what medical care he receives. Custody is not the same as parenting time. Throughout the show, what Margo and Mark seem to really be fighting over is parenting time with Bodhi. It is entirely possible for one parent to have “custody” while parenting time is split equally between both.
- Introduction of Evidence in a Family Law Trial: In the last episode, we see the “trial” which mostly consists of the judge admonishing everyone for their poor behavior: Mark for creating this mess by seducing, impregnating, and then abandoning Margo when she needed him; Margo for her career choice; Margo’s father for his robust handshake; Margo’s mother for attacking Mark’s mother; and Mark’s mother for the verbal jabs that provoked the punch. The judge then asks each member of Margo’s family to hold Bodhi. Bodhi is content with every one of them. But when Mark holds Bodhi for the first time, the baby immediately bursts into tears. The judge then rules and grants Margo primary custody, while Mark gets Bodhi two weekends a month.
This is simply not how a family trial works. While, in Ohio, family law trials are held without a jury, the parties still need to follow the rules of evidence on how evidence can be introduced:
- Evidence and testimony would have to come in through each party and their witnesses being questioned by their own lawyer and then the opposing lawyer.
- Bodhi would never have been in the courtroom. In Ohio, at least, minor children are not allowed at custody hearings.
- It would take many months, sometimes over a year, before an evidentiary hearing would be held. First, the parties would have had to go through the “discovery” period where they would have exchanged documentation, sent subpoenas, maybe even take depositions. That is exactly the process that Lace warned Margo about being an expensive endeavor. In Ohio, this holding from the Judge would most likely have been one on a temporary basis while the case was ongoing, not a final order like the show suggests.
After the hearing, Margo and Mark make peace. Mark acknowledges that Margo is a good mother, and Margo says she wants Mark to be part of Bodhi’s life.
Apple TV has confirmed that “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” will return for a second season, leaving open the possibility that Margo and Mark find their footing as co-parents. Both characters have made questionable choices along the way, but neither is portrayed as inherently unfit, and Bodhi stands to benefit from having both parents involved in his life.
Contact
For questions about custody, parenting time, or child support in Ohio, contact KJK Family Law attorney Eva Saulnier (ECS@kjk.com).