Kelly Rutherford Accused Of Child Abduction

If you've been following along with former Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford's custody battle with ex-husband Daniel Giersh, you know it's gotten pretty ugly, and now, it's getting even uglier. Rutherford celebrated a victory when she won full custody of her children — 8-year-old Hermes and 6-year-old Helena — in the United States, but it sounds like there's been another serious bump in the road. According to Us Weekly, Giersh accused Rutherford of child abduction after she refused to send the kids back to him in Monaco.

On Friday, August 7, Rutherford released a statement explaining that she'd been granted sole custody and would not be sending Hermes and Helena back to France. Apparently, Rutherford won the battle in California, but Giersh filed for sole custody in Monaco, and that's complicated the issue even further, as Monaco has maintained that they have jurisdiction over the children despite the fact that they were born in the U.S. Rutherford's statement reads:

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. 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.

But according to Giersh, Rutherford was allegedly supposed to send the kids back on Friday, and now that she's not following through with that plan, he and his attorney, Fahi Takesh Hallin, have released a statement of their own about Rutherford's most recent actions, accusing her of making false statements and abducting the children.

"He is very concerned about the traumatic impact that Kelly's behavior will have on the children," Hallin said. "Kelly was to have delivered the children in France to their father on August 7, 2015. Child abduction is a crime, and everyone involved in kidnapping or abducting the children will face the appropriate legal consequences. Anyone associating themselves with Kelly and her abduction is violating the law."

Until May 2015, Rutherford had been separated from her children since 2012, when they were sent to live with their father in France. Since then, Rutherford has fought to get them back into the United States, and has been very open about the affect that the battle has had on herself as a mother and her family.