Kelly Rutherford (Photo : Reuters)
Kelly Rutherford may have turned you off with her mean ways as Lily van der Woodsen in "Gossip Girl" but in real life she deserves some of your sympathy as she tries to get the full custody of her two young children.
Rutherford recently hit a snag when a federal court in California had ruled that the children would have to stay with their father, Daniel Giersch, in France to avoid the exhausting travels.
Us Weekly reported that the federal court decided Rutherford's children, 8-year-old Hermes and 4-year-old Helena, are not being deported and once they reach the right age, can be free to choose where to reside.
The court decision devastated Rutherford, she said in an interview with ABC News that she is not giving up on the custody battle.
She told the publication that she had no words to explain how she feels to be separated from her children, "of not being able to bring them to school, pick them up from school; dress them; hug them; smell them."
Rutherford said she will continue fighting to be with her children. To her credit she created an organization The Children's Justice Campaign to help other parents endure custody battles.
Although Rutherford won a joint custody battle back in August 2012, her ex-husband had been banned from entering the United States and had lived since then in Europe.
For the past two years, the Hollywood actress had to travel frequently to France, where his ex-husband now resides with the children.
This predicament, however, had prompted Rutherford to declare bankruptcy last year. In December 2013, the federal court also ruled that her ex-husband need not give financial support to Rutherford because the children are with him.
