Custody battles often occur between parents who cannot amicably work out a way to share their children’s time. In Maryland, child custody cases strive to put the children’s best interests first. This is true for all couples, including celebrities.
Kelly Rutherford has been in the news lately as she publicly fights with her ex-husband for custody of her two children. They divorced in 2008, and their drawn out battle shows the issues faced by celebrities’ children. When the parents are newsworthy, the children are often put in the news as well.
However, because Rutherford’s children are living in Monaco, the United States courts are having trouble gaining a foothold in a custody decision. Her ex-husband’s lawyer claims that the U.S. has no jurisdiction over the custody issue. Even so, the parties have agreed to have the children back with their mother in California on June 15, 2015, so the judges from Los Angeles and Monaco can confer during a custody hearing.
Rutherford claims that because her children were born in America it is their basic right to live here with her. She filed for divorce while pregnant with her second child in 2008, and the two parents agreed on joint custody. However, in April of 2012, her ex-husband’s visa for America was revoked due to substantial evidence of fraud, terrorist acts, drug dealings and weapons dealings, which forced him to permanently leave the United States.
Sometimes celebrity children are too young to understand what is happening in the news. However, intense custody battles such as this undoubtedly cause the children stress. When considering child custody in Maryland, parents may wish to seek the advice of an attorney who can help them with out-of-state issues as well as out-of-country issues to help alleviate some of the stress for everyone involved.
Source: lawstreetmedia.com, “Should Celebrity Custody Battles Put Children in the Limelight?“, Angel Idowu, June 3, 2015
