Actress Kelly Rutherford has just been ordered to return her children to the custody of a man she claims is an unfit parent.
Gossip Girl star Rutherford, 46, and her ex-husband Daniel Giersch, 41, have been engaged in a custody battle over their two children, Hermes, 8, and Helena, 6, since 2009.
One day after Rutherford was ordered to return the children to Giersch in Monaco, People magazine uncovered an affidavit filed in 2012 that claims Helena, then three, almost drowned while in Giersch’s care.
Layla Lisiewski, from Connecticut, said she saw the little girl fall into a pool in Bermuda, unobserved by her dad.
“I saw that Helena had somehow fallen into the pool and was underwater,” Lisiewski said in the affidavit, reports People.
“In a split second, I looked towards the man, whom I assumed was the children’s father, and then around the pool to locate a staff member. No one seemed to have noticed Helena fell into the pool.”
Lisiewski says she jumped into the pool and pulled the toddler out.
“Her eyes were huge with shock and fear. I was concerned that her mouth was closed; she was not gasping for air. I instinctively and firmly patted her in the middle of her back, which caused her to throw up quite a bit of water. Helena started whimpering, which relieved me, as I thought at least I knew she was breathing,” she alleges.
Lisiewski says Giersch only became aware of his daughter’s near-drowning when he noticed that she was holding the toddler.
“He appeared terrified and took Helena from my arms,” she said, adding that he was “panicking” and “asked a lot of questions like how long she was underwater.”
She asked Giersch why his daughter wasn’t wearing floaties, and he told her that she didn’t like wearing them.
Rutherford had previously ignored a court order from Monaco to return the kids to their German businessman father.
A New York Supreme Court judge on Wednesday upheld the order and according to People, Giersch’s mother, Rosita Giersch, left the courtroom with the two children to return to Europe.
In May, Rutherford won the right to have her kids back for the summer, but the new ruling means they will return to their father permanently.
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Top Comments
He has custody because she ensured he could not live in America, thus making regular shared parenting impossible. He cannot even apply for a Visa due to her and her lawyers lies. She can spend time with the children when they are with him (he willingly pays all her travel expenses), he cannot spend time with the children while they live with her.
Multiple judges have found that she was trying to alienate Geirsch from the children. She's broken custody agreements before. She's made unfounded allegations and then backed off as soon as things were close to becoming perjury. Earlier this year she was trying to incite random strangers to kidnap her children, saying anyone who brought them back to America would be a hero. Now she's kidnapped them.
Through all the drama she's created, Geirsch has continued to try and co-parent with her. Even after this latest incident he remains willing to co-parent with her. He could have filed charges. If it weren't for his reasonableness she'd be in a jail cell right now. Meanwhile she barely even acknowledges the fact that the children have a father. If you read her interviews you could be forgiven for thinking the children were deported to some hellhole and living like orphans with no parental figure at all, when in fact they're living in beautiful Monaco with their dad and their grandparents.
The children are dual citizens, as much EU citizens as American citizens. At this point they've lived in Europe longer than the U.S. As EU citizens they and their father are free to live anywhere in Europe. Geirsch's family lives in Monaco, that's why he chose to live there.
Nothing is stopping Kelly from moving to Monaco. Geirsch has been willing to help with that. She's no longer a working actress. There's nothing keeping her from her children except for her attitude. She's responded to questions about why she hasn't moved with 'why should I?'. Maybe to be with your kids?
BTW, Geirsch was always the primary carer for the children, when they were together, when they were seperated, and now for the time they've lived in Monaco. In a normal situation he'd have retained primary custody anyway.
Now that makes more sense, hmm changes my perception completely. Ta
That's the thing I'm pretty sure the children were born in America. So wouldn't that be their home? I feel for her as a parent it would be heartbreaking.
I responded that way as the article is about her that's all. I know how hard it is for fathers as well, it has to be fair. I'm not sure, but I thought that the children were born and lived in USA which you would think was where primary residence. If so, he should make the choice to live where his kids are so they can share custody instead of all the court and legal mayhem.
He tried to live in america. He is allowed to and can't apply for a visa to visit.