Kelly Rutherford has refused to return her children to live with their father in Monaco. The "Gossip Girl" actress is in a battle with her ex-husband Daniel Giersch over the custody of their 8-year-old son Hermes and 6-year-old daughter Helena, according to Entertainment Tonight.
The kids were ordered to live with their father in Monaco three years ago. Rutherford recently won the legal right to take her children back to the U.S. for the summer, provided that the kids are returned to the father in Monaco at the end of the appointed stay.
"These past three years waiting for my children to come home have been very difficult. My children were forced to leave the United States in 2012 when they were only 2 and 5 years old," Rutherford, 46, said. "In May, a judge in California gave me sole custody and brought them home. I am immensely grateful and overjoyed to have them back. Since May, however, the court proceedings have been confusing."
"My ex-husband recently filed for sole custody in Monaco after causing my children to be declared 'habitual residents' there, even though he agreed with California in 2012 that the children's time in France and Monaco would be temporary, and that the children would retain exclusive citizenship and residency in the United States," she added, US Weekly reported. "I trusted my ex-husband's agreement, and cannot now send them away in light of the legal actions taken in Monaco in violation of that agreement by my ex-husband."
Rutherford argued that since 2 U.S. courts, one in New York and another in California, have said they do not have jurisdiction in her custody battle, it means that no state in the U.S. currently requires her to send her kids away. "Hence, I have decided that I cannot lawfully send my children away from the United States to live in a foreign country, she said, according to People.
Rutherford and Giersch split in 2010 after four years of marriage and have been battling for custody ever since.
