Gallery: Celeb custody battles

Actor Jason Patric, former girlfriend Danielle Schreiber, and son Gus vacation together in Hawaii less than a year before he filed a paternity suit. Gus was conceived through in vitro fertilization and Patric is seeking status as his legal father. Hollywood has a history of contentious custody disputes including ...

Halle Berry and her daughter's father, model Gabriel Aubry, haven't had the easiest breakup since they split in 2010. There was a nasty fight in 2012 between Berry's then-fiance, Olivier Martinez, and Aubry. In June 2014, the Oscar-winning actress was ordered to pay over $16,000 in child support each month to her ex.

In a custody battle that went international, Kelly Rutherford's case may seem like a storyline from her former show, "Gossip Girl." But the drama was very real, and in August 2012 she was ordered to share custody of her two children with her ex, Daniel Giersch, in Monaco.

The courts awarded custody of Britney Spears' two sons to their dad, Kevin Federline, in 2007, and at one point Spears actually lost the right to visit the kids. Spears and Federline are said to be on better terms these days, and she is often photographed with their boys.

The world learned probably more than it wanted to know about Mel Gibson after audio leaked that was said to be of him ranting to ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. The former lovers settled on a deal in 2011 that reportedly granted her $750,000 and visitation with their young daughter.

The singer ultimately won custody of his two young sons with his ex-wife, but not without some drama in the courtroom that included Usher breaking down in tears on the stand at one point during testimony.

Their divorce in 1998 was messy and the custody battle over their two sons was even more so. At one point during the custody trial, Anderson said she had contracted hepatitis C from sharing an infected tattoo needle with Lee. In 2002 they decided to share custody.

Etheridge and her former spouse reached an agreement in 2012 to share custody of their 5-year-old twins, but not before plenty of accusations were tossed back and forth. TMZ reported that Etheridge claimed Michaels had accidently burned one of the children with a cigarette.

The basketball player spent years in the courts with his ex-wife before winning custody of his two sons in 2011. The experience so impacted his life that in 2012 he released a book titled "A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball."

The "30 Rock" star and his ex-wife fought over the custody of their daughter for seven years. The battle peaked in 2007 after he left a voicemail for their child calling her a "rude, thoughtless little pig." Baldwin wrote about it in his book, "A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce."

Allen's romantic relationship with Farrow's adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Farrow Previn, did not help their custody battle over their three kids go smoothly. In awarding Farrow custody in 1993, the judge characterized Allen as a "self-absorbed, untrustworthy and insensitive" dad. Allen later married Previn and the couple adopted two children.