The Latest Kelly Rutherford Custody Dramz

Actress Kelly Rutherford has custody of her children for the summer, and is supposed to send them back to Monaco to live with their father permanently at the end of the month. Rutherford released the following statement to People on Friday:

"These past three years waiting for my children to come home have been very difficult. My children were forced to leave the United states in 2012 when they were only 2 and 5 years old. In May, a judge in California gave me sole custody and brought them home. I am immensely grateful and overjoyed to have them back. 

Since May, however, the court proceedings have been confusing. [Courts in both California and New York have ruled that they do not have jurisdiction over the children, which] means no state in this country is currently protecting my children. It also means that no state in this country currently requires me to send the children away. Hence, I have decided that I cannot lawfully send my children away from the United States to live in a foreign country. 

The Monaco court treated me with respect when I appeared there earlier this year to file a formal objection to their jurisdiction. I believe Monaco appreciates why it cannot assert jurisdiction over my children, and that Monaco will respect my children's right to reside in their own country. I hope that this decision will end this painful litigation, and that my children will be allowed to live in peace in their own country. 

Like all German citizens, my ex-husband can presumably travel to the United States on his German passport and exercise his parental rights in this country, just as I have done for the past three years in France and Monaco on my U.S. passport. I pray that officials in this country and in Monaco will agree that three years in exile is a very long time in a child's life, and that my children have a right to remain, once and for all, in the United States." 

Game, Set, Match.