Jesse Williams’ ex-wife, Aryn Drake-Lee, has responded after the actor was recently awarded full custody of their children’s healthcare.
Drake-Lee, 43, claimed in new court documents obtained by Us Weekly that being stripped of legal custody was a “serious infringement on her parental rights.” (In Touch was first to report the news.)
Us confirmed earlier this month that Williams, 43, accused Drake-Lee of violating a March court decision that awarded him sole custody over their two children’s healthcare. Williams and Drake-Lee share daughter Sadie, 11, and son Maceo, 9.
At the time, Williams claimed that Drake-Lee tried to block a previous court order by “threatening” Sadie’s orthodontist. The Grey’s Anatomy alum alleged that Drake-Lee “aggressively told the doctor” that she didn’t consent to treatment and threatened to sue if he “touches the children.” Williams then filed an emergency motion for sole legal custody over Sadie and Maceo’s healthcare.
In her Monday, May 12, response, Drake-Lee denied the accusations and claimed that the court decision was made without “any evidentiary hearings.”
“I assert that no facts, evidence, or substantiated findings of harm, danger or unfitness were presented to justify such a serious infringement on my parental rights,” Drake-Lee claims. “This decision was based solely on hearsay and lacks the procedural due process guaranteed under California law and the U.S. Constitution.”
According to Drake-Lee, Sadie and Maceo had been held as “protected property within an irrevocable, non-statutory private trust for which they are the sole beneficiaries.”
Her documents add: “The minor children are named and encompassed within this trust as property protected by equitable title, and any state action that seeks to assert authority over their mental, physical or emotional health without due process or threat of immediate irreparable harm constitutes a breach of trust.”
Tensions have been high between Jesse Williams and his ex-wife Aryn Drake-Lee in the years following their divorce. After meeting in New York City while the Grey’s Anatomy alum was working as a schoolteacher, the couple tied the knot in September 2012. “She’s been with me through all different facets of my career,” Williams told […]
Drake-Lee further requested that the court reconsider awarding Williams sole legal custody of health, restoring her own custodial rights. Williams has not publicly addressed Drake-Lee’s motion. Us Weekly has reached out for comment.
Williams and Drake-Lee were married from 2012 to 2017. Amid their divorce, the now-exes went back and forth over custody arrangements. While the actor wanted to share custody, Drake-Lee asked for sole custody given Williams’ work schedule. Their divorce was finalized three years later.
Us previously confirmed in September 2024 that Williams requested to alter their custody arrangement, asking for equal joint physical custody and more visitation periods.
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