After losing an ongoing custody battle, Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford is refusing to deliver her children to Monaco.
By court-order, Rutherford was required to send her children, Hermes (eight) and Helena (six) to live with their father, her ex-husband Daniel Giersch, a German businessman, on Thursday. Rutherford did not comply, later announcing she had no intention of doing so.
According to People, no single state in Monaco is claiming jurisdiction over the court proceedings, which Rutherford states is the reason she will not give in.
“No state in this country is currently protecting my children. It also means that no state in this country currently requires me to send the children away. Hence, I have decided that I cannot lawfully send my children away from the United States to live in a foreign country.”
Rutherford states Monaco’s court system has treated her with respect, and she hopes her decision to keep her children in the United States “will end this painful litigation, and that [her] children will be allowed to live in peace in their own country.”
Mamamia previously wrote…
It doesn’t matter how famous you are — sometimes you just can’t win.
For three years, Gossip Girl actress Kelly Rutherford has been embroiled in a custody battle for her two children.
Rutherford, 46, split from her husband Danierl Giersch, 41, in 2009.
After the couple’s divorce, Giersch was deported from the United States on suspected visa fraud. Then in 2012, he won the right to have the children live with him in Monaco — a ruling Rutherford has been trying to dispute ever since.
Rutherford has been unsuccessfully fighting for the right for the appeal hearing to be held in Los Angeles, where she currently lives.
Mamamia previous reported: Kelly Rutherford’s ongoing custody battle.
Overnight, People magazine reported that a judge in Monaco has upheld Giersch’s custody rights — again awarding him custody of the pair’s son Hermes, 8, and daughter Helena, 6.
According to court papers obtained by the magazine, the decision was made yesterday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas.
“The Court does not believe that it is obligated to relinquish jurisdiction to Monaco, only that it acknowledges that it no longer has jurisdiction over the children,” Juhas reportedly wrote.
In May, Rutherford won the right to have the children live with her in California over the Summer — but this new ruling permits Giersch to have the children returned to Monaco where they will live with him permanently.
Read more: Leighton Meister and Adam Brody make a special announcement.
Giersch and Rutherford were married for four years, but divorced in 2009.
Mamamia previously reported Rutherford filed for bankruptcy, claiming she spent her fortune — partly earned from playing Lily Van Der Woodsen on Gossip Girl — on legal fees and flights to France to see her children.
Post continues after gallery:
Kelly Rutherford with her kids.
Rutherford has previously said she is happy to share custody.
“I’ve always wanted my kids to have a relationship with him, and I’ve really only encouraged that all along. When I went into court, I never asked for money, and I never asked for full custody,” she told People Magazine.
“I just wanted what was right for them and their well-being moving forward. And what happened over the next six years was the most surreal, bizarre, unimaginable thing.”
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Top Comments
You have to feel for her, after all this time she has lost and he has full custody. To have your children so far away would be very difficult. And she still has only asked for joint custody not full custody, doing the right thing keeping their father in their life. Keep your chin up Kelly, your children will know as they grow that you did all that you could.
Good. She's an unbalanced narcissist. She's the one who, via her lawyer, made the allegations that caused him to lose his visa. She thought she would get full custody.
The courts found evidence of parental alienation on her part. Her ex on the other hand pays for her regular visits to Monaco to see the children and remains happy to try to co-parent with her.
Earlier this year she was saying things like 'anyone who brings my children back to the US will be a hero', basically trying to incite a kidnapping. There have been real fears that she'll try and flee with the children.
Nothing suggests her ex is a bad father, and she's never made any claims of abuse against him. She subtly implies things but when she gets close to committing perjury she backtracks fast. The allegations of arms dealing that got his visa revoked have never been substantiated by any evidence, even flimsy evidence.
The best she's been able to come up with for why they should be with her is that they're American citizens (they're also German citizens due to their father), and she claims its tantamount to abuse to not raise them in the US because of this. That's seriously her main argument.
Monaco is a fairly easy country to gain residence in if you have a little money, which she does despite her bankruptcy. She's still getting healthy residual checks from Gossip Girl and Melrose Place. If this was about the children, she would have moved there shortly after they did. She barely works these days, it would have had no effect on her career. But she never even looked into that option. It's not about the children, it's about winning for her.