Joe Jonas, Sophie Turner reach temporary custody agreement
Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner, who wed in 2019, have two daughters. Credit: Invision / AP / Evan Agostini
English "Game of Thrones" and "Dark Phoenix" star Sophie Turner and her estranged husband, American singer Joe Jonas, have reached a temporary custody agreement in their contentious divorce proceedings, allowing their two children to remain in New York with their father for the time being.
Following Jonas’ Sept. 1 divorce filing in Florida, Turner, 27, responded in a Sept. 21 petition that their daughter Willa, 3, and another unnamed daughter, 14 months, have lived in England since April. She alleged that while they were in New York with Jonas, 34, he refused to return them to “their habitual residence” in the U.K.
But in an emailed statement to the U.K. newspaper The Independent on Tuesday, a representative for Jonas stated that, “Joe and Sophie had a cordial meeting this past Sunday in New York, when Sophie came to New York to be with the kids. They have been with her since that meeting,” adding that, “Joe’s impression of the meeting was that they had reached an understanding that they would work together towards an amicable co-parenting setup.”
However, continued the statement, Turner less than a day later “advised that she wanted to take the children permanently to the UK. She demanded via this filing that Joe hand over the children’s passports so that she could take them out of the country immediately.” But because a Florida Court previously had ordered that neither parent relocate their children, Jonas could not comply without being “in violation of the Florida Court order.”
On Monday, according to court documents reviewed by NBC News, USA Today and other outlets, Turner and Jonas filed an interim consent order in New York, agreeing the two children would remain in the "jurisdictions of the United States District Courts for the Southern & Eastern Districts of New York pending further order of this Court." The area includes New York City, Long Island and Westchester County.
Jonas’ representative stated that while the singer does not object to his daughters being raised in both the United States and the United Kingdom, the children “are American citizens” born in America and have spent "the vast majority of their lives” in this country.
Turner and Jonas, of the band Jonas Brothers, married in Las Vegas on May 1, 2019, in a surprise ceremony. A few weeks later, they staged a lavish second ceremony in France on June 29.
