Kelly Rutherford wasn’t willing to just let her kids go after a Manhattan judge ordered her to produce her two children — Hermes, 8, and Helena, 6 — so they could leave to return to their father in Monaco on Aug. 11.
According to Page Six, the Gossip Girl actress, 46, filed a federal lawsuit just an hour after the ruling to try to regain custody of her children from her ex-husband, Daniel Giersch. A judge denied her suit the same day.
“The federal court’s decision was obviously incorrect, and we are appealing,” Rutherford’s lawyer told Page Six.
The two exes, who split in 2008 when Rutherford was pregnant with Helena, have been fighting for custody of their children for years.
Giersch, 41, has had custody of their children since 2012, when a judge ruled that it was in the kids’ “best interests” to live in Monaco with their father since he has been unable to enter the U.S. Rutherford had the children for the summer and was supposed to return them to their father in early August, but said in a statement on Aug. 7 that she would not do so.
Despite her not wanting to let her children go, Giersch’s lawyer Ira Garr told reporters after the initial Aug. 11 hearing that “there was no scene” when Rutherford said goodbye to her kids. “Everything was done very civilly.”
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The next court date in Rutherford and Giersch’s custody battle is set for September, and will be held in Monaco.
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