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Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’s Custody Battle Is ‘Going to Get Uglier and Uglier’
The split didn’t seem acrimonious at first. When Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner announced in early September that their marriage is over, they released a joint statement, saying, “After four wonderful years of marriage, we have mutually decided to amicably end our marriage. There are many speculative narratives as to why but truly this is a united decision, and we sincerely hope that everyone can respect our wishes for privacy for us and our children.”
Then all hell broke loose. Just days later, Sophie, 27, sued Joe, 34, in a Manhattan court, asking for their two kids — Willa, 3, and a daughter identified in court docs as D., 14 months — to be returned to her in her native England. The complaint against the “Sucker” singer called for “the immediate return of children wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained.” The former Game of Thrones actress claimed that as of September 20 Joe was withholding the kids’ passports and not allowing them to return to England. “Joe was livid,” an insider tells Life & Style. There was a “ceasefire” days later when an Interim Consent Order ruled that the kids must remain in the Southern and Eastern districts of New York, “but that may be only temporary,” notes the insider. “This custody battle is just going to get uglier and uglier.”
Rumors of a divorce persisted for months. Over the summer, Joe and Sophie listed their $16.995 million waterfront mansion in Miami just two years after buying it. More recently, TMZ reported that multiple sources who have direct contact with Joe claimed he had access to a ring cam that allegedly captured Sophie saying and/or doing something that made him realize the marriage was finished. “She likes to party, he likes to stay at home,” a source told TMZ. “They have very different lifestyles.” (Sophie’s team had no comment.)
Days later, Joe pulled the trigger and filed for divorce in Florida. “No one expected it to get this ugly this quickly,” says the insider. (A second source insists Joe and Sophie “only want what’s best for the kids and will try to resolve this amicably.”) In Sophie’s filing to have the kids returned to England, she claimed that when she and Joe spent Christmas 2022 in England, they decided to look for their “forever home,” select a school for their older daughter and settle their family in the countryside. “The parties agreed that the timing was right for the family to settle permanently in England, particularly given the older child’s age,” the docs state. “The parties found a beautiful country property…and both agreed they would purchase the property for the family’s permanent home.”
But now that the divorce is on, “all bets are off,” says the insider. “Joe isn’t about to let his kids go and let them be raised thousands of miles away from him. Some believe it’s outrageous that Sophie sued him, thinking he would just let her take the kids to England.” Joe seems to have won this round — the kids must remain in New York for now — but that arrangement could be only temporary. Says the insider: “Sophie is going to fight for her kids.”
