Kelly Rutherford lost custody of her two children, Hermes and Helena, to her ex-husband Daniel Giersch, following a six-year court battle. Not only doesn’t she have custody, but Kelly Rutherford can no longer bring her children to the United States. This means the former Gossip Girl star must travel to Monaco in order to visit them.

Kelly Rutherford has lost custody of her children after years-long legal battle: https://t.co/r75hfRcLG3 pic.twitter.com/Vi6THbaemh

— ELLE Magazine (US) (@ELLEmagazine) December 17, 2015

It was back in August that Kelly Rutherford refused to return her children to Monaco following a visit with her in the U.S. That no doubt played a huge role in the custody decision. At that time, New York Supreme Court Judge Ellen Frances Gesmer ordered Rutherford to return the children right away, and didn’t look favorably upon her failure to do so at the agreed time.

Michael Stutman is the head of the family group at Mishcon de Reya New York. He spoke to People magazine about the situation. He does not represent either Kelly Rutherford or Daniel Giersch.

“I would be surprised if she was allowed to take the children out of Monaco again without some level of security,” he said ahead of this week’s decision.

“Kelly’s failure to deliver the children…likely bought them a one-way ticket to Monaco. Given Kelly’s initial failure to send the children back, showing up without them was probably the nail in her coffin,” he added.

Kelly Rutherford expresses honest disappointment after her Monaco custody ban https://t.co/rrjJHKTrZF pic.twitter.com/RhEDAnOaf7

— People magazine (@people) December 16, 2015

Of the judge’s decision, Stutman said, “The actions of Ms. Rutherford leading up to this ruling make the decision to award custody to Mr. Giersch the furthest thing from a surprise.”

“Any responsible lawyer would advise her to end this crusade for custody,” he added.

Kelly Rutherford may already be back in Europe to see her kids https://t.co/PCgAXNvvrS pic.twitter.com/lukYF1UO5o

— People magazine (@people) December 18, 2015

Were you surprised to learn that Kelly Rutherford lost custody of her two children?