These days, most people know Jeremy Renner best for being a part of the multi-billion-dollar Avengers and Mission Impossible movie franchises. In addition to these high-octane action roles, the 50-year-old performer has had an impressive (and lucrative) acting career that spans two decades and includes two Academy Award nominations. He’s also the father of an eight-year-old daughter, though his divorce from her mother has been anything but cordial. Has the split and custody battle affected this in-demand actor’s bottom line? Here’s a look at Jeremy Renner’s net worth and the contentious relationship with his ex.
Jeremy Renner’s Career
Born on January 7th, 1971, Jeremy Renner had a slow rise to stardom. He didn’t set out to be an actor from the start—after graduating from high school, the California native studied computer science and criminology at Modesto Junior College before trying out an elective drama class. Once he did that, he immediately fell in love with acting.
“It was therapeutic,” Renner said in a 2016 interview with The Guardian. “The stage was a safe place for me as a man with a lot of feelings inside which I had not exposed before. Where I’m from, it would have been unacceptable – people would have told me I was a crybaby. So, I held everything in. Playing characters gave me the freedom to have all those feelings, that rage or sadness, in a safe way.”
Not long after this discovery, Renner decided to make his way to Hollywood to pursue a career in acting. During the late ’90s and early ’00s, the aspiring star was constantly auditioning and scoring bit parts in TV shows and movies such as National Lampoon’s Senior Trip, Deadly Games, The Net, Angel, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
His Breakthrough Roles
Renner landed his first starring role in the 2002 indie film Dahmer, playing the notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. That role got him noticed and earned him critical acclaim (including an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Lead Male) and led to parts in higher-profile films such as S.W.A.T., North Country, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (which starred Brad Pitt), and 28 Weeks Later.
But Renner’s big breakthrough came in 2009 when he starred in the critically acclaimed war thriller, The Hurt Locker. The movie was nominated for a total of nine Academy Awards (including one for Renner for Best Actor) and ended up taking home six, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Two years later, Renner made his first appearance as master marksman Hawkeye in the Marvel movie, Thor. While that part was an uncredited cameo, he reprised the role the following year in 2012’s The Avengers, alongside Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and Scarlett Johansson. That cemented Renner’s status as a key player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and he’s since gone on to star in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Widow.
Renner And His Ex-Wife Have Been In And Out Of Court For Years
Unfortunately, Renner’s love life has not gone as smoothly as his induction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In January of 2014, the Mission Impossible star married Canadian actress and model Sonni Pacheco. The couple share a daughter, Ava Berlin, who was born in 2013. But just 10 months after tying the knot, Pacheco filed for divorce from Renner, citing irreconcilable differences and claiming the couple’s prenuptial agreement should be voided because it was based on “fraud.”
What followed was a firestorm of stories about the couple’s contentious divorce, including Pacheco’s request for primary physical custody of Ava, claiming Renner’s home featured hazards such as an unfenced pool area and a gun weapon collection. At the same time, a close friend of Renner’s argued that Pacheco was the irresponsible parent and that she only married Renner for his money and to gain U.S. citizenship.
The Messy Custody And Child Support Battle
After responding to his ex with his own court filing in 2015, Renner and Pacheco were granted joint custody of their daughter. Under the agreement (as reported by People), Renner was ordered to pay $13,000 per month in child support, as well as five percent of any excess he made if his income exceeded $2.3 million a year.
However, after the enormous success of his multiple MCU movies, the child support agreement had to be adjusted to account for Renner’s new staggering $11.4 million income. In April of 2018, he was ordered to pay an additional $292,000 in child support for that year, and a new agreement was reached between the couple. Renner’s yearly child support payments moving forward would not exceed $200,000, and any money over that limit would be put into a trust fund for Ava’s education.
Then in October of 2019, Pacheco made some shocking allegations against her famous ex. In addition to accusing him of drug use and leaving cocaine out in the open where his daughter reach it, she claimed that Renner threatened to kill her. Renner fired back, denying all the claims and even stating that he underwent random drug testing to prove her allegations of drug use were false. In a statement made through his lawyer (as reported by People), Renner said: “It is important to note the dramatizations made in Sonni’s declaration are a one-sided account made with a specific goal in mind.”
But the drama didn’t stop there. In 2020 Renner accused his ex of misappropriating funds meant for their daughter, claiming she moved close to $50,000 their daughter’s trust fund into her own personal accounts. He also requested that his monthly child support payments be lowered due to his inability to work during the pandemic.
Jeremy Renner’s Net Worth
According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, Jeremy Renner is worth approximately $80 million. In addition to his hefty MCU paychecks, this also includes sizable payouts from other successful franchises such as Mission Impossible and Bourne.
Real Estate
The American Hustle actor also earns extra income flipping houses, which is a passion he discovered with friend Kristoffer Winters back when he was a struggling actor trying to make ends meet. “We pulled our money together and bought a house and fixed it up a little bit,” Renner said in a 2015 interview with Business Insider. “Then someone offered us almost twice what we paid for it, so we took the money and bought another house and kept doing it and doing it.”
Since that time, the duo has made some serious bank restoring close to two dozen houses. According to the Los Angeles Times, one of their most lucrative projects was the renovation of an Art Deco mansion that sold for a whopping $24 million in 2013.
But at the end of the day, Renner says that it’s his role as a dad—not his Marvel millions—that matters the most to him. “[Fatherhood] really kind of it changed my perspective on a lot of things,” Renner said in a 2015 interview with Ellen DeGeneres (as reported by Entertainment Tonight). “It’s kind of screwed my career in a lot of ways. Because I don’t really care about [my career] so much because I care about her so much. She’s like No. 1 in my life. And now I get to do movies on the side.”