Salma Hayek's Husband Speaks Out About Child-Support Case

Sunday September 11, 2011 02:25 PM EDT

From left: Salma Hayek, Francois-Henri Pinault and Linda Evangelista

Anthony Harvey/PictureGroup; Dominique Charriau/WireImage; INF

Salma Hayek's husband has broken his silence in the big-money child support dispute over his child with supermodel Linda Evangelista.

François-Henri Pinault is refuting claims by Evangelista's lawyer that the French businessman has been "paying zero" toward raising the now-4-year-old boy. Evangelista is seeking $46,000 a month in support.

Pinault tells the current French issue of Elle that he has "recognized" the boy since 2007 and that "at every possible opportunity he has participated in my family life whether in France or the United States."

"He is totally integrated within my family," says Pinault, adding that this relationship has extended to his sister Valentina, the child Pinault fathered with Hayek in 2007.

Augustin was born in October 2006, more than eight months after Pinault had been separated from Evangelista and around the time that Pinault started dating Hayek. They were married in 2009.

• Reporting by PETER MIKELBANK