Sophie Turner can take kids back to England and have them for Christmas under interim agreement
Sophie Turner and Joe Turner have reached a temporary agreement regarding their two young daughters, which allows the “Game of Thrones” star to take the girls with her to England this month and to have them over the Christmas holidays.
On the face of it, this interim custody agreement sounds favorable to Turner, who at one point was being negatively portrayed by Jonas’ P.R. team as an immature, absentee, hard-partying mother while he was left to be their primary caregiver. The agreement basically has the girls, ages 3 and 15 months, splitting time between the two parents through the beginning of next year, People reported.
The agreement was reached after a “productive” four-day mediation session last week, People reported. The mediation was designed to cool off the heated rhetoric and aggressive legal tactics that had been coming from both sides in the past month.
Under the terms of the agreement, Turner will care for the girls through Oct. 21, during which time they can travel anywhere in the United States or accompany their mother to her native U.K., People reported. The girls will then return to Jonas on Oct. 21, and remain with their musician father through Nov. 2.
The girls will divide their time between their parents in November, with Jonas scheduled to have them over the Thanksgiving weekend, a holiday that presumably has more meaning to an American like Jonas than to Turner. He’ll also be able to enjoy the early part of the winter holiday season with his daughters, and return them to Turner on Dec. 16, People reported. She’ll have them with her through the New Year.
The agreement comes a little over a month after the musician filed for divorce in Miami after four years of marriage. At the time, he reportedly was caring for the girls while touring with the Jonas Brothers band in the United States. Turner was in the U.K. working on a new TV series. She returned to the U.S. in mid-September and filed suit against Jonas in federal court. She alleged “wrongful retention” of their daughters, saying that her estranged husband was “wrongfully” withholding their daughters’ passports and not allowing her to take them back to England, where she said the couple had once planned to buy their “forever home.”
In response, Jonas representatives put out a statement denying that he had tried to “abduct” his daughters and pointing out that they were born in the U.S. and are therefore American citizens. A few days later, the estranged couples reached a temporary agreement to keep their daughters in the New York City area, pending the outcome of further legal actions. Last week, the couple spent four days in mediation and hammered out this temporary agreement, which gives both parents wide latitude to travel with their daughters in the United States and the U.K.
As for the future, the agreement requires “that the parties shall jointly submit a status report letter” prior to Dec. 23, outlining the status of mediation between the two at that point, People reported.