While Kelly Rutherford's character may have a tough time on screen taking care of her wild children on the hit TV show "Gossip Girl," Rutherford's real-life tales of motherhood are even more traumatic. That's because since August, her two children— Hermes, 5, and Helena, 3—have been living in France with their father and Rutherford's ex-husband, German businessman Daniel Giersch after a California judge's ruling.
Unfortunately for the actress, that has meant that if she wants to see them, she must make the trip halfway around the globe. And while the actress has steady work, she has been making to rounds on talk shows and tabloids explaining how the situation has left her feeling the pinch financially.
"The burden has basically been put on me to go and see my children," Rutherford told Katie Couric. "I've had to fly 40 times to go and see them. I stay in a hotel; I see them, it's like a weird situation, you know, to be taken away from their friends and their family and everything they know." Seeing how she been dealing with the heartache, Rutherford's friends have been rallying around her, even starting an online petition for California's lawmakers to get her kids back.
"I want you to know that Kelly is not your average mother," her fried Caroline Fina wrote. "She is the mom who sews the Spider-Man mask back together when it rips, the mom who has lollipops in her purse at all times just in case she comes across a child crying, at school, at the airport, anywhere."
Kelly Rutherford's custody battle leaves her struggling financially (SF Gate)