What to Know
A judge has denied Christina Ricci‘s ex-husband’s request for emergency custody of their 11-year-old son, Freddie. After James Heerdegen claimed that Freddie told him his mom was drinking on a plane while they were flying together on June 16, he asked for a hearing, but now that Freddie is backpedaling on his story, the celebrity mom doesn’t appear to be in any danger of losing her time with her son.
James asked for an emergency custody hearing earlier this month.
According to People, James filed for emergency custody of Freddie after he said his son texted him while on a flight to Canada with his mom, claiming that she was drinking alcohol on the plane.
When responding to the filing, Christina confirmed that she was aware that Freddie had reached out to his dad and used “certain words” to describe the way she was acting after consuming alcohol.
Two days later, Freddie said he “overreacted.”
While talking to attorneys on June 18, Freddie dialed back his claims against his mom and said that he had “‘overreacted’ in sending those text messages to his father.”
“The description of Ms. Ricci’s alcohol consumption and behavior thereafter was not as he had described,” the attorney said, via TMZ.
Apparently, Freddie’s words carried enough weight with the judge (along with the other evidence presented about his parents) that he decided to deny James’ request for custody, so Freddie will remain with his mom as usual. She and James share legal custody of their son, but Christina was granted primary physical custody of Freddie in their divorce.
She asked the judge to keep the text messages that James submitted between him and Freddie sealed, since he has been bullied by classmates in the past and she was worried that if the texts got out, they could “jeopardize” his mental health. The court has revealed to keep the texts private.
James and Christina’s divorce in 2020 wasn’t amicable.
When the former couple split up after seven years of marriage in 2020, Christina was granted a protection order against James after she accused him of “severe physical and emotional abuse, with “many” of the incidents taking place in front of Freddie. According to Christina, the pattern of abuse began when she was first pregnant with their son and that, by 2019, she felt she was “stuck in the house with a man who had physically and emotionally abused me, and knew that I wanted to end the marriage.”
At the time, James also accused Christina of abuse as well as abusing alcohol and substances while also denying the allegations against him.
Since then, Christina has moved on. In 2021, she married hair stylist Mark Hampton, and the couple welcomed their first child together, daughter Cleo, later that year.
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