Actress Kelly Rutherford has been dealt a bitter legal blow in her custody battle with her ex-husband after a California judge ruled she has no right to argue the case in the state.
The 46-year-old former "Gossip Girl" star has been locked in a six-year court battle with her ex-husband Daniel Giersch over the custody of Helena, six, and Hermes, eight, which began when their father's US visa was revoked and he was allowed to take the children to France to live with him in 2012, reported People magazine.
Rutherford has been protesting the ruling ever since, insisting the case should never have been heard in California in the first place - as neither she nor Giersch lived there at the time of the decision, and she recently scored a small victory when a Monaco judge agreed the youngsters should spend the summer with their mother in the US.
However, on Thursday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas ruled she had no legal recourse to fight for custody in the state, giving Giersch custody.
He wrote, "The Court does not believe that it is obligated to relinquish jurisdiction to Monaco, only that it acknowledge that it no longer has jurisdiction over the children."
After the ruling, Rutherford's attorney David J Glass released a statement, which read: "We are extremely disappointed. This court set up the current situation whereby my client was forced to live bi-coastally, but now, the court appears to be holding it against her.
"Likewise, the court created the situation whereby the children would lose their connections to California, and despite the Judgement's language precluding the passage of time from creating new jurisdiction, that is exactly what has happened."
Rutherford and Giersch split in 2008.
