Kelly Rutherford "Beside Herself" on Last Day With Kids Before They Return to Monaco

Gossip Girl star "truly doesn't know with certainty when she can ever see them [daughter Helena and son Hermes] again," source tells E! News

By Rebecca Macatee Aug 05, 2015 8:11 PMTags
Kelly Rutherford, Hermes Giersch, Helena GierschEugene Gologursky/Getty Images

Kelly Rutherford's time with her kids in the United States is coming to an end.

A source tells E! News that the Gossip Girl actress will be flying with daughter Helena, 6, and son Hermes 8, to Monaco Thursday, where they will go back to living with their father, Rutherford's ex-husband Daniel Giersch.

Rutherford, 46, "is beside herself," says a source. "Kelly truly doesn't know with certainty when she can ever see them [the children] again, as the Principality of Monaco will soon be considering her ex's petition to obtain sole custody."

Watch: Kelly Rutherford Turns Activist

Giersch and Rutherford, who divorced in 2010 after four years of marriage, previously shared custody of their children. However, since Giersch's visa was revoked, Rutherford has been forced to fly to France to see her kids (a California court previously ruled that the children must live abroad in order to uphold the joint custody agreement). The children have been primarily living with their father in Monaco since 2012. The custody battle has cost the actress about $2.5 million, forcing her to file for bankruptcy in 2013.

In June, a Monaco court ruling ordered that Helena and Hermes fly to the United States July 3 to spend the summer with their mother. The same month, both California and New York courts declined to hear her custody case because both ruled there's no jurisdiction. 

Rutherford's New York attorney Wendy Murphy was disappointed by the judge's most recent ruling, telling E! News last month, "New York said it had no jurisdiction because, it said, California had jurisdiction - which is silly - but it is what it is."

"This new jurisdiction vacuum leaves the children with only their American constitutional citizenship rights to protect them from forced exile," Murphy added, "and as rights go, there's nothing stronger than citizenship so we are optimistic."

—Reporting by Senta Scarborough