Kelly Rutherford Keeps Kids In The U.S., Rejects Ex-Husband Daniel Giersch’s Claims Of Child Abduction

Kelly Rutherford has defended her decision to keep her children in the U.S. instead of returning them to their father Daniel Giersch, and rejects the notion that she’s guilty of child abduction.

Kelly Rutherford, Daniel Giersch Custody Battle

Rutherford and Giersch have been in a protracted custody battle over their two children – son Hermes, 8, and daughter Helena, 6 – since their 2008 divorce. Though Rutherford was granted sole custody in May and her children were returned to her in the United States from Monaco where they had been living with Giersch, in July judges in California and New York both found that they did not have jurisdiction in the case.

Per the rulings of a Monaco court, Rutherford was to return Hermes and Helena to Giersch by Aug. 7. Rutherford did not comply with the order, leading Giersch’s lawyer to claim that the actress was now guilty of child abduction.

“Daniel will continue to protect the children from any harm and any media exposure. Unfortunately Kelly has now added child abduction to extortion and false statements on her list of actions,” Giersch’s attorney Fahi Takesh Hallin said in a statement. “Daniel will make sure that the children’s safety and well being will be restored as soon as possible.”

“He is very concerned about the traumatic impact that Kelly’s behavior will have on the children. Kelly was to have delivered the children in France to their father on August 7, 2015,” Hallin added. “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.”

Following Hallin’s comments on Giersch’s behalf, Rutherford responded to defend herself against charges of child abduction. According to her, she is just acting based on the self-interest of her children. As for as the legal implications of her actions, Rutherford and her lawyer argue that the lack of jurisdiction makes the situation ambiguous at present.

“My first priority is to protect my children,” Rutherford said on Good Morning America. “Their safety is my priority. I’m a mother first, and from the beginning, I said I would fight for my children. I think most parents would.”

“It’s been very hard for the kids and I, it’s been kind of cruel, in a way, because we just want to see each other and be together, and they’re very young,” the Gossip Girl actress added. “It put me as a parent in an odd place, because if nobody’s taking jurisdiction, how do you put your children on a plane to a foreign country not knowing what’s going to happen?”

Rutherford’s lawyer Wendy Murphy weighed in on the case on the morning show as well, claiming that a 2012 ruling about Giersch’s temporary – not permanent – custody should still stand. “Temporary means they come back to their own country so what Kelly’s doing is really just respecting what the court said in 2012,” Murphy told GMA. “They’re American citizens. They have a right to live in their own country.”

“It’s curious that the children’s father would make cruel threats and derogatory remarks rather than refusing to respond to the very simple statement we released last week explaining why the children are entitled to reside in their own country,” Murphy had added in a statement. “Mr. Giersch made an agreement with Kelly and the American courts in 2012 that the children would live abroad with him only temporarily while he resolved his U.S. work visa issues. He did nothing to address his visa problems, and three years is exceedingly not temporary.”

Giersch has a hearing in Monaco scheduled for Sept. 3.