Devastated “Gossip Girl” star Kelly Rutherford yesterday lost her appeal to stop her two kids being ordered by a judge to move full time to France with her ex-husband.
The beautiful blond actress, who plays Blake Lively’s mom on “Gossip Girl,” had earlier lost a heartbreaking courtroom fight this week when a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that her kids Hermes, 5, and Helena, 3, must live overseas full time with her ex, Daniel Giersch, a German businessman.
Judge Teresa Beaudet decided the kids would live and go to school in France because Giersch has visa problems and can’t return to the US to visit them.
Lawyers for frantic Rutherford, who said she’s already spent $2 million in attorney fees to block Giersch from keeping the children abroad, yesterday begged the judge for a stay to allow them to return to New York — where she’s filming “Gossip Girl” and where she had planned for them to start school next week.
But Beaudet ruled the kids must remain in France. She said, “It would be a total disservice to miss their first day of school together. We already see the serious negative impact this [custody case] has had on Hermes in the past.”
Both children are due to start at an English-speaking school in France on Monday. Kelly is due to fly to France to join them today but has to be back here on Tuesday for more “Gossip Girl” filming.
A rep for Rutherford said, “Kelly is grateful for the outpouring of support from friends and legal experts who are shocked that American citizen children can be ordered to live in France simply because their father is banned from entering the US. Kelly is hopeful the judicial system will expeditiously reverse this stunning turn of events.”
Rutherford told the judge she currently earns $65,000 a month but is $2 million in debt due to legal fees from the custody fight. Beaudet responded that she found Rutherford’s claim of being so much in debt “hard to accept” if she could afford to spend $2 million on attorney fees.