John Singleton’s Mother To No Longer Pay Director’s Daughter

John Singleton’s mother recently scored a legal win against the late prolific director’s daughter, Cleopatra, over a four-figure monthly allowance paid by his estate.

A Los Angeles judge granted Singleton’s mother, Sheila, permission to stop paying Cleopatra $2,700 every month, which the latter has received since December 2019 when she was a college student, noted court documents obtained by Radar Online.  The matriarch, who’s run Singleton’s estate since his passing in April 2019, highlighted that her 24-year-old granddaughter graduated from Louisiana’s Xavier University in May 2021. Singleton’s mother relatedly requested that the court reduce Cleopatra’s final payment by how much she received following her graduation. 

Cleopatra reportedly implored the court not to side with Sheila since, according to her claim, she was still taking online classes.

The outlet additionally noted that last year, Cleopatra requested $1 million from her father’s estate and claimed to be his sole beneficiary. 

According to the source, in July 2023, Cleopatra’s mother, Vestria Barlow, named Sheila in a $15 million pending fraud lawsuit. The filing additionally targeted the late director’s estate and various studios.

Vestria’s lawsuit alleged she’s owed 7% to 10% of Singleton’s residuals from the defendants. The ex argued her suit was an attempt to recover from the “failure and refusal to pay past and ongoing royalties, residuals [in addition to] compensation for use of Plaintiff’s intellectual property in films, television programs, videos and other streaming services.”

Sheila has reportedly denied the ex’s claims.

Court documents filed by the matriarch’s camp reportedly disclosed that the director left behind $6 million in assets. Moreover, the Hollywood vet reportedly has several businesses and still collects residuals from his film and TV projects.

Singleton’s children — Cleopatra, Justice, Selenesol, Hadar, Massai, Isis, and Seven — will reportedly share a 1/7 interest in his estate.

The Hollywood multihyphenate was a director, screenwriter and producer whose contributions to entertainment and pop culture included Poetic Justice, Boyz N The Hood, Baby Boy, Higher Learning, FX series Snowfall, and much more. 

Cleopatra is one of two children Vestria shared with Singleton. Vestria posted a happy birthday tribute to the 24-year-old Sept. 6 in honor of the Xavier University alumna’s special day. 

Cleopatra has acting credits in Baby Boy, which came out in 2001, and 2020’s Squatter, a horror film. The 24-year-old’s LinkedIn account lists her last job as a seasonal sales associate at Best Buy, where she worked for around a month in late 2022.

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