Gossip Girl Star Kelly Rutherford Faces Loss in Family Court

Gossip Girl actress Kelly Rutherford got some unwelcome news in a French family court recently — a judge ruled against her request to have residential custody of her children with ex Daniel Giersch. This means Giersch can keep their five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter with him in France, and Rutherford will have to travel to see them.

Rutherford has already said she intends to appeal the decision. Unfortunately, things aren’t exactly looking good for her right now. Giersch, a 37-year-old businessman Rutherford was married to from 2006 to 2010, lives in France because he no longer has a visa to stay in the United States. Had Rutherford won her modification request, she would have been able to relocate the children back to the States. The judge reasoned that such a move that would have made Giersch’s ability to see his children nearly impossible. They also decided that Rutherford’s schedule was flexible enough that she should be able to travel to see her children without difficulty.

Rutherford doubtlessly had a very skilled custody lawyer working with her on this matter, but it seems as though Giersch did as well. Divorce lawyers in Washington can vouch for how difficult child custody and visitation rights can be for parents living in the same state if their divorce was contentious — and can tell you that such issues become exponentially more complicated when parents reside in different states or different countries.

More to come on Rutherford’s child custody battle as this story develops…