Kelly Rutherford Surrenders Children After Judge Orders They Must Return To Monaco With Their Father, Daniel Giersch

Kelly Rutherford has surrendered her children after a judge ordered that they must return to Monaco, where their father Daniel Giersch lives.

According to Us Weekly, a Manhattan judge ordered Rutherford to return her son Hermes, eight, and daughter Helena, six, to their father on Tuesday, August 11. The children later left with their paternal grandmother and headed to the airport.

The Gossip Girl actress and her ex-husband, a German businessman, have been in a nasty custody battle since they divorced in 2010. The former couple originally agreed to share custody of their children, but after Giersch was refused re-entry into the United States, due to his U.S. visa having been revoked, a judge ordered the children should live with him in France.

However, in May, a judge granted Rutherford, who is probably best known for her character Lily van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl, temporary custody of Hermes and Helena, and they arrived in the United States to stay with their mother in July.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Rutherford was supposed to send them back to Giersch on August 7, but she chose not to; prompting Giersch to accuse her of kidnapping and child abduction.

“My ex-husband recently filed for sole custody in Monaco after causing my children to be declared ‘habitual residents’ there, even though he agreed with California in 2012 that the children’s time in France and Monaco would be temporary, and that the children would retain exclusive citizenship and residency in the United States” she said in a statement, prior to the judge’s ruling. “I trusted my ex-husband’s agreement, and cannot now send them away in light of the legal actions taken in Monaco in violation of that agreement by my ex-husband.”

The children’s fate was in the hands of New York Supreme Court Judge Ellen Frances Gesmer, who decided to uphold the court order that required them to fly back to Monaco, People Magazine reports. Gesmer had ordered Rutherford present the children in court, but Kelly didn’t comply, claiming she was trying to prevent them from being attacked by the “media circus,” which further upset the judge.

“Kelly’s failure to deliver the children on Thursday likely bought them a one-way ticket to Monaco,” Michael Stutman, the head of the family group at Mishcon de Reya New York, said. “Given Kelly’s initial failure to send the children back, showing up without them was probably the nail in her coffin.”

Do you think Hermes and Helena should be allowed to stay in the United States with their mother, Kelly Rutherford? Leave your comments below.

[Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images]