Kelly Rutherford was visibly upset during an appearance on The View Thursday morning, during which she opened up about her three-year custody battle with her ex-husband, Daniel Giersch.
In an emotional moment, Rutherford — whose fight took a turn for the worse in August when a judge ordered that the couple’s two children, Hermes, 5 and Helena, 3, would remain with Giersch in France — admitted that she is worried about her kids’ safety under Giersch’s care.
“My fear is, [Giersch] could disappear tomorrow and I’d have no way to look,” the Gossip Girl actress, 43, said. “My biggest fear is that I wouldn’t know where they are.”
“I just want them to be OK,” she continued. “They’re just little babies. They need a chance to have a consistent life.”
When did she last get to see her children?
“I last saw them about a week ago,” she told the panel.
Sobbing, she recalled, “My little girl said, ‘I want to come home, Mama; I want to come back to New York.’ My son, who’s kind of been brainwashed [to believe] that where he is [living] is so much better, always says, ‘Mama, I love you so much.’”
Joining Rutherford on the program was ABC Legal News Analyst Dan Abrams, who called the judge’s rulings one of the worst custody decisions ever.
Detailing the decision — which was made without taking into consideration that Giersch’s American Visa had been revoked — Abrams said that even the children’s lawyer in the case had said it would be best for them to remain in New York.
For now, Rutherford says she plans to appeal the decision — and is speaking with Alan Dershowitz for advice on how to bring her children back to the United States.
Giersch, meanwhile, has not commented on the battle himself; however, he has released a statement through his lawyer, Fahi Takesh Hallin, saying he is “focused on co-parenting the children, and continuing to promote any and all contact of the children with Kelly.”
On Aug. 31, Rutherford had asked a judge for a stay, which would have allowed her children to remain in the United States while she appealed the court’s ruling. Her request was denied.
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