Category: Joe Jonas

Last week, we heard that Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas had agreed to go into mediation to try to work out the terms of their divorce. In September, Joe filed for divorce in Florida, where they lived and had a home up until early this year. Weeks later, Sophie sued Joe in a New York court, saying that he had abducted their children, refused to relinquish their passports and that the girls need to return with her to the UK. It was set to be a catastrophically messy and international custodial battle, but the fact that they agreed to the mediation and agreed to some temporary terms laid out by the New York court seemed like good first steps. As it turns out, their mediation went really well and they’re likely about to sign an agreement. TMZ had details about the immediate custodial framework for the rest of the year:

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner have struck a deal in their divorce case — and it sounds like they’re both on the same page. As we reported, Joe and Sophie were hashing out the terms of their divorce during 3 days of mediation last week.

There is a prenup, so it looks like assets were not a big issue. The bigger issue, of course, was child custody. Sophie wanted the kids to live with her in the UK, and Joe wanted them to stay with him in the U.S.

According to settlement docs, obtained by TMZ, “an amicable resolution on all issues between them is forthcoming.” Translation — they’re super close to signing a settlement.

In the meantime, they have agreed to a temporary child custody agreement. Under the terms, the 2 kids — ages 1 and 3 — will be with Sophie from October 9 through October 21. During that time, she’s allowed to travel with them to the UK. On October 21, Sophie must return with the kids to the U.S., where Joe will then take them through November 2.

The kids will then go back to Sophie until November 22. Joe gets them on that day and will presumably spend Thanksgiving with them. The kids go back to mom on December 16, where they will stay until January 7. So she gets them for XMAS and New Year’s. Sounds like a final settlement is looming.

[From TMZ]

This kind of custodial framework will only “work” while their daughters are young. Once they get to school age, it’s highly unlikely that either parent would agree to a two-weeks in the UK, two weeks in the US pattern. So, while I’m glad that mediation worked well for them for the time being, I’m not sure if they’ve actually come up with long-term solutions. It also strikes me that Sophie and Joe are both wondering if the other will relent about their (separate) living situations. Sophie might be going into this thinking that Joe will eventually buy a home in London, and Joe might believe that Sophie will eventually want to move back to the US.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

It’s been interesting to watch as Sophie Turner becomes some kind of sainted figure for a particular group of people, and those people suddenly fancy themselves family-law experts who claim that Sophie is 100% right and Joe is 100% wrong. While I’ve said all along that Joe’s carefully orchestrated campaign against Sophie was a nasty business, don’t confuse that with Sophie having a strong position. She is not in a strong position whatsoever. As soon as she claimed that Joe was abducting their children – while their daughters were with her in New York and after she had been served with the order to not remove the children from the US – it was clear that Joe and Sophie both needed to come to the table and work out their sh-t quietly. Thankfully, over the past week, it looks like they’ve started to do just that. They’re now dealing with the family court in New York, they agreed to not remove the girls from the greater New York area for the time being, and now they’ve agreed to mediation:

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner are turning to mediation to work through custody of their children. In a hearing on Tuesday, lawyers for the estranged couple revealed that they are set to start a four-day mediation on Wednesday to resolve issues in their divorce, including establishing custody and a parenting plan for their two daughters, Willa, 3, and Delphine, 14 months.

Although Judge Katherine Polk Failla set a Jan. 2 trial date, the mediation aims to solve many of Turner, 27, and Jonas’ custody issues. In court, Turner’s lawyer Stephen Cullen claimed that Jonas, 34, is asking for joint custody, saying that “what he was looking for is a 50-50.”

“The parties are both seeing their children, which is what we all want,” Cullen later said.

Judge Failla agreed with Cullen, saying that she “echo[es] concerns about the children” that he had brought up.

Despite high hopes for the mediation, Cullen said that the current case “should proceed in parallel track to [the] mediation.”

Reps for Jonas and Turner did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment regarding the mediation.

[From People]

For the record… Joe has never said that his aim was full custody. He’s always said that he and Sophie should have 50-50 custody, and he’s actually fine with Sophie moving back to the UK and raising their daughters there half the time. He just doesn’t want to move to the UK, which seems to be the root of all of this drama more than anything else. I would love to know how all of this plays out in mediation, but that’s the whole point of Sophie and Joe going through mediation – they can work this sh-t out with their lawyers in a room instead of the acrimonious legal filings.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Joe Jonas is a creep, a jerk and probably quite sexist too. He clearly wanted Sophie Turner to be his tradwife, and he backtracked in a hurry when his week-long smear campaign against Sophie backfired. All that being said, as Sophie and Joe’s dueling legal filings have shown, Joe is a lot more prepared than Sophie. He’s been preparing for this divorce for months, he’s listening to his lawyers and, by filing for divorce first in Florida, he’s done a lot to control how the divorce and custody battles will proceed. All Sophie has is… a letter. A letter Joe wrote when they were shopping for real estate in the UK.

Sophie Turner has filed legal documents that include a heartfelt letter written by Joe Jonas to the seller of the U.K. home the former couple intended to purchase together before their split. The exes have been involved in a contentious ongoing custody dispute about where their children — Willa, 3, and Delphine, 14 months — should live in the wake of their divorce. The Game of Thrones actress, 27, claimed in an earlier filing that the family’s home base was in the U.K. and revealed she and the Jonas Brothers singer, 34, had entered into a contract to buy a home in her native country.

According to Page Six, Jonas reportedly wrote in part, “When my wife and I decided we were going to spend more time in the UK and search for a permanent home, our daughter expressed three unwavering requirements: having chickens, a pony and a Wendy house … While many of the houses we viewed met this criteria, the moment we turned the corner and caught sight of the charming blue shutters adorning [redacted], we experienced a sense of magic unlike anything we had felt before.”

He also reportedly wrote to the owner: “We can envision our children growing up here and making this our forever home,” and, “I really think Sophie and I will be able to look after [redacted names] and for many years pay homage to the magic you have created here.”

However, a source close to the situation tells PEOPLE of the house in England, “They did not buy the house. The house is in escrow, the sale never closed.” According to an earlier filing from Turner, they began looking for a house in the U.K. in Dec. 2022. The search continued through July 2023, when they entered into a contract to purchase a property, but the deal would not be completed until December 2023.

“They have never been residents of the U.K.,” the source adds. “Residency is a legal term and that is how the courts will define it. Residency includes things like where you have your driver’s license, where you vote, where your kids go to school, where you last lived as a family for a significant period of time (specifically 6 months).”

In 2021, Turner and Jonas had purchased and completely redecorated a family residence in Miami. They listed it for sale in April 2023 and sold the property for $15 million in August. Referencing this property, the source continued, “There is no place the family lived for 6 months or longer other than Florida. Intention, expressed in a letter or otherwise, does not equal residency. Actions do. And so while the letter was inserted in the motion in order to pique the attention of reporters, it won’t actually be material to determine legal residency.”

[From People]

Yeah… Joe’s side is correct. While the letter shows that Joe, at one time, intended to buy a home in the UK, it’s not some smoking gun which proves that Joe and Sophie lived in the UK, had established residency in the UK or that this is a British family court issue. Like, it sort of feels like Sophie’s biggest issue with Joe is that he changed his mind about moving to the UK, or that he was never even sold completely on the move in the first place. This letter would be a smoking gun in a civil case if Sophie was suing him over a failed real estate deal, but in a divorce case, the letter isn’t that important?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Joe Jonas and his team began their campaign against Sophie Turner on Labor Day, and by the end of that week, he had filed for divorce in Florida and served Sophie with an order saying she couldn’t remove their children from America. During that week, Joe’s team tried out several different strategies for why Joe was dumping Sophie – something about how she parties too much, how her career stagnated while his is thriving, and Joe seeing Sophie do or say something on their Ring camera. It was a lot and none of it worked, people saw through it. But I was still curious about the Ring camera story in particular! Well, Us Weekly has some answers to that in their cover story this week. Some highlights:

No end in sight: On September 25, a judge ordered Turner and Jonas to keep the kids in New York, but sources tell Us there may be no end in sight to the ongoing drama between the singer and the Game of Thrones actress. Friends are hopeful they can be mature for the sake of the kids, but neither one is going to acquiesce to the other. “This could go on for a very long time.”

Why Joe agreed to live in the UK: A second source says Jonas had agreed to relocate across the pond because “he wanted to make Sophie happy, and he supported her because that is where she wanted to live.” Now that they’ve split, the source says Jonas “is hoping they can come to an amicable agreement,” noting that Turner is “dead-set on moving to the UK full-time.” Adds a third source: “They’re both laying down these aggressive legal markers, but eventually a compromise will have to be made.”

Things went downhill when the JoBros went on tour: The first source says Turner wasn’t thrilled about Jonas’ decision to go on tour with his brothers Nick and Kevin. “Sophie didn’t want to always be ‘the Jonas brother’s wife,’” says the source. “She didn’t want to go on tour and do everything together. It’s not her personality, and she wanted to keep their family separate from all the Jonas Brothers hoopla.” The third source says Turner felt overwhelmed juggling her career, two babies and Jonas’ demanding schedule. “Being a mom on the road is not easy, even when you have unlimited resources. It was just hard for them to settle into a regular routine because of Joe’s career especially.”

They looked miserable together at an industry party in March. “Sophie says Joe was too controlling,” says a fourth source. “She also said Joe liked to flirt a little too much while out in public, but then he wouldn’t like it when she would get too close to her male friends. It was clear their marriage was crumbling.”

Joe’s September campaign: “Sophie was essentially painted as a party animal,” says the third source. “She was shocked and hurt.” As for Turner’s claims she found out about the divorce through the media, the second source says the actress and Jonas “had discussed it prior — it’s not true that she learned about it in the press.

The Ring camera: Another report claimed Jonas had discovered something scandalous via footage from their security camera at home prior to filing for divorce. The first source says the camera caught Turner saying some not-so-nice things about Jonas to a pal. “It wasn’t anything more than that,” the source says, “but that was the final straw.”

The Jonas family: Joe is leaning on his family. “They know that this divorce was not an easy decision for him, and they’re supporting him in any and every way they can,” shares a fifth source. His brothers’ wives, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Danielle Jonas, are trying to remain neutral. “They’re being supportive of both of them,” says the second source. “It’s a difficult time. They’re very busy, but wish Sophie and Joe the best in working it out.”

[From Us Weekly]

The Ring camera stuff… like, I actually see both sides, maybe. Sophie has every right to bitch about her husband to her friends or family, and it’s clear they were both unhappy and telling other people about their misery. On the other side, it was probably really hard for Joe to hear her talking sh-t about him behind his back. Like, I understand why this marriage broke down and why they were sort of doomed to fail from the start. But I genuinely hope that they figure something out which doesn’t involve a long, drawn-out, international custody fight.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, cover courtesy of Us Weekly.

During the Labor Day-week where Joe Jonas was trying to smear Sophie Turner as a partier and an unfit mother, there was an undercurrent to the reporting that everything fell apart between them this year, especially when Sophie went back to work in the UK. Sophie had been primarily living in America since she and Joe got together (when she was 19) and they bought a home in Florida, thinking it would give them more privacy. Still, Sophie indicated in many interviews that she missed living in England and she would love to raise her children there and not America. Well, all of it was connected – Sophie has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan, suing Joe to get access to their daughters and for Joe to relinquish their daughters’ passports. It’s messy messy.

Sophie Turner is asking for her kids to be returned to England. In a lawsuit filed in a Manhattan court on Thursday and obtained by PEOPLE, the Game of Thrones alum, 27, has requested that her two kids — Willa, 3, and a daughter, identified in previous court docs as D., 14 months — be returned to England. The complaint against estranged husband Joe Jonas calls for “the immediate return of children wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained,” with Turner’s legal team asserting the “wrongful retention” began on Sept. 20.

Turner claims that she and the musician, 34, agreed to declare England their “forever home” in conversations that took place over Christmas 2022 as they prepped for the year ahead. The couple sold the Miami home they previously resided in and were in the process of buying a home in the English countryside in April, the documents allege, at which point Turner began filming on the Joan mini-series she has worked on this summer.

Once Jonas began touring with The Jonas Brothers, the documents claim the two agreed to let the girls join him because he had more daytime hours to be available to them than Turner did amid filming, noting she had “hesitation” about the “temporary arrangement.”

Turner alleges that the breakdown of their marriage happened “very suddenly” after an argument on Aug. 15, with Jonas filing for divorce on Sept. 5 and the Dark Phoenix actress learning about their split “from the media” days later. The issue of custody came to a head when the two met up to discuss the next steps after their split two weeks later, Turner’s petition claims, at which point she “reiterated” the plan to move to England and was met with a change of heart by Jonas.

According to the documents, “The Father has possession of the children’s passports. He refuses to return the passports to the Mother and refuses to send the children home to England with the Mother.”

Jonas’ attorney allegedly confirmed to Turner’s legal team on Sept. 19 that he would not be returning the passports and would not provide consent for his daughters to move, the documents claim.

[From People]

While I’ve been on Sophie’s side for much of Joe’s smear campaign, I have to quibble about “refuses to send the children home to England.” While both of their daughters are apparently dual citizens, the girls were born in America, have an American father and have lived the bulk of their lives in America. It’s not like Joe and Sophie were completely set up in England this whole time. But I digress, because Joe is making a similar point. His team reacted swiftly and issued a scathing statement:

On Thursday, a representative for Joe Jonas, 34, shared a statement obtained by PEOPLE in response to his estranged wife’s lawsuit that alleges he is not letting the couple’s two kids — Willa, 3, and a 14-month-old daughter — return to England.

“After multiple conversations with Sophie, Joe initiated divorce proceedings in Florida, as Florida is the appropriate jurisdiction for the case. Sophie was aware that Joe was going to file for divorce. The Florida Court has already entered an order that restricts both parents from relocating the children. Sophie was served with this order on September 6, 2023, more than two weeks ago,” the statement reads.

“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. Joe’s impression of the meeting was that they had reached an understanding that they would work together towards an amicable co-parenting setup.”

The statement alleges that less than 24 hours after the “amicable co-parenting setup” was agreed upon, “Sophie advised that she wanted to take the children permanently to the UK. Thereafter, she demanded via this filing that Joe hand over the children’s passports so that she could take them out of the country immediately. If he complies, Joe will be in violation of the Florida Court order.”

The statement asserts that the musician is “seeking shared parenting with the kids so that they are raised by both their mother and father, and is, of course, also okay with the kids being raised both in the U.S. and the UK,” but also alleges that the children “have spent the vast majority of their lives in the U.S.” Though the statement notes the children are American citizens, both children have dual citizenship in both the United States and England.

“This is an unfortunate legal disagreement about a marriage that is sadly ending. When language like ‘abduction’ is used, it is misleading at best, and a serious abuse of the legal system at worst. The children were not abducted,” the statement says. “After being in Joe’s care for the past three months at the agreement of both parties, the children are currently with their mother. Sophie is making this claim only to move the divorce proceedings to the UK and to remove the children from the U.S. permanently.”

“Joe has already disavowed any and all statements purportedly made on his behalf that were disparaging of Sophie. They were made without his approval and are not consistent with his views. His wish is that Sophie reconsider her harsh legal position and move forward in a more constructive and private manner. His only concern is the well-being of his children,” the statement concludes.

[From People]

I’m not sure if I should say what I really think because you guys might yell at me but… I think Joe realized months ago that it was a very good possibility that his marriage would end soon enough, and he took steps to ensure that their daughters were with him in America as the marriage ended, so he would have all of his legal ducks in a row and he could control the jurisdiction. Think about how differently this would have gone if Sophie had the girls with her in the UK and Joe filed for divorce in Florida and Sophie refused to budge – it would have been an international incident and a huge jurisdictional problem. But, that being said, Joe being smart and thinking a few steps ahead isn’t “abduction.” As Joe’s statement says (and he seems to have all of the legal docs to back it up) – he got the Florida family court to issue an “order that restricts both parents from relocating the children. Sophie was served with this order on September 6, 2023.” Joe had a vision that this would happen and he took steps to ensure that he protected his custodial rights. Sophie is trying to muddy the jurisdictional issue and fudge the residency issue. You can’t just declare out of nowhere that two minor children born in America need to be “returned to their home in England.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.