Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner Duke It Out Over Their Kids—Now With a Lawsuit

What started off as the best co-parenting intentions are now destined for a battle in court.

The recently split pop star Joe Jonas and actress Sophie Turner are deep in the co-parenting-to-custody-battle quagmire. It’s an example of "he said, she said"—one that began early this month when Jonas filed for divorce in Florida and has persisted throughout September.

Our earlier coverage of this event distilled the multimillionaire couple down to, “working parents with not-so-normal schedules [who] made the best decision for their family,” when it came to their parenting plan over the past several months while Jonas toured across the United States and Turner filmed a new television series abroad.

During this stretch of time, the couple’s children—Willa, age 3, plus their 14-month-old daughter—were in the primary care of their father (which need not be celebrated unnecessarily: it’s 2023, and kudos to Turner for pursuing a career while parenting. No man on earth has ever been asked to choose between the two). In fact, a source told People the kids have, “some more support at home and on the road with [Jonas and] his family,” deeming the decision, “something [Jonas and Turner] both agreed was best.”

But things changed on September 21 when Turner filed a lawsuit in Manhattan court suing her soon-to-be-ex for “wrongful retention” of their minor children. People obtained that lawsuit which alleges "the Father has possession of the children’s passports [and] refuses to return the passports to the Mother and refuses to send the children home to England with the Mother."

Jonas’ legal team is fighting back in the form of a statement, sharing that the couple spent time with the kids last Sunday—in New York—after which Jonas was under the impression they, “had reached an understanding that they would work together towards an amicable co-parenting setup."

What Does the Law Say?

"Shame on both of you" was my first reaction—before reaching out to a Hollywood family law attorney for a lowdown on the legality of these logistics.

“Typically, when people file for divorce or separation, the parties are automatically restrained from travel with minor children outside of the state where the filing takes place,” says Scott Weston, an attorney and the co-chair of the family law practice group at Fox Rothschild LLP in Los Angeles.

He cites an effort “to preserve the status quo and ensure that neither parent removes the child(ren) from that State without written agreement of the parties (typically entered as a court order) until the Court hears from the parties regarding issues of custody and renders a decision about all custody issues, including custodial timeshare and travel.”

In short, this approach ultimately forces parents to either agree upon travel with the minor child(ren) or obtain a court order regarding travel outside the United States, and final divorce or separation decrees contain provisions regarding travel both outside the state and outside the country.

According to a statement from Jonas’ legal team, an order was entered in Florida Court on September 6—with which Turner was served—one that indeed restricts both parents from relocating the children. So who is in the wrong here?

“In the early days of divorce, before a child custody arrangement or parenting schedule has been established, the ‘rules’ of what each parent is allowed to do without suffering legal consequences are harder to determine,” says Robin Lalley, Principal and Managing Attorney of Sodoma Law.

She underscores an invaluable kernel of wisdom. “Traveling internationally without informing the other parent, or unreasonably withholding permission to travel or passports, can have the potential to negatively impact the overall outcome of your custody case,” she tells Parents, pointing to good judgment and acting within reason as the prudent course of action.

Despite presenting a united front when announcing their split on Insta, the ostensibly “mutual decision” took a sharp turn for the worse. While I’m a big fan of supporting mothers and the integral role they play in raising children, I’m not a fan of casually wielding words like “abduction” as alleged in Jonas' legal team statement. There are families across America facing the consequences of this crime every day.

Lalley reminds readers who may find themselves in this sticky situation that, while parents generally maintain the freedom to travel with their children post-divorce—both locally and abroad— circumstances do exist in which a court can step in and take immediate action in the best interest of the child, regardless of whether a custody order is in place or not.

“One such circumstance is when a parent alleges that the other parent is trying to take the children, or has taken the children and is refusing to return them, for the purpose of evading the court’s custody jurisdiction, whether that be to another state or another country," Lalley explains. "In cases where children are separated from one parent across international borders, if the country where the children are located has adopted the Hague Convention, it can be used to petition the courts of that country to order a return of the children."

Lalley also cites further specifics. “In the United States, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act is a uniform law adopted by each state that allows each state to order the return of children from one state to the home state where the custody action is set to be addressed,” she says, pointing to essential tools at a parent’s disposal should things get particularly messy.

Bottom line: No matter the circumstances, parents are always at liberty to choose the high road and set a positive example for their children based on what’s in their best interest. In this particular case—another unfortunate (albeit highly visible) instance in which things between Mom and Dad didn’t turn out the way they had planned—getting the courts involved can unfurl an ugly (not to mention costly) path for both parents and, by extension, kids.

We hope the whole family finds a mutually agreeable way forward. All kids, regardless of their parents’ relationship status, deserve to grow up feeling loved and held by their parents. Period.

Related: States Are Making Shared Custody the Default—Could This Be the Arrangement We've Been Waiting For?

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Read the original article on Parents.