It’s been a while since we checked in with Morena Baccarin and the messy situation she’s found herself in. To recap, Morena and her husband Austin Chick were having problems and were together on-and-off. They still shared a home in LA. Then Morena started banging Ben McKenzie and she got pregnant. Then Austin and Morena filed for divorce around the same time as the conception. Now Morena and Austin’s divorce has gotten really bitter and it’s quite possible they’ll still be legally married when she gives birth to McKenzie’s baby. Morena and Ben are now living together in NYC and she has primary custody of Julius, her son with Chick. On Tuesday, People Magazine had this story:
As Morena Baccarin prepares to start a family with Gotham costar Ben McKenzie, she’s embroiled in a bicoastal custody battle with estranged husband Austin Chick. In September, a Los Angeles judge ruled in the actress’s favor, allowing her to move their 2-year-old son Julius with her to New York, where she shoots Fox’s Batman origin show. (Baccarin, 36, and Chick, 44, share legal custody, but she has primary physical custody.)
New legal documents obtained by PEOPLE show that even after the couple split this summer, the unemployed writer/producer agreed to stay in N.Y.C. in an apartment Baccarin rented for him so they could co-parent – until McKenzie came into the picture.
Chick “shipped some furniture there and actually stayed there with the child for approximately two weeks in July. Apparently he changed his mind and returned to Los Angeles with the child when he learned that [Baccarin] had a new boyfriend,” according to the papers.
Baccarin is now expecting a baby with McKenzie, 37, and the court notes that “her obstetrician gynecologist avers it is a high risk pregnancy and advises against extensive air travel” – another reason for Julius to stay mainly in N.Y.C. with his mom instead of flying back and forth to L.A. every month. A hearing on child and spousal support is set for Nov. 19.
Baccarin and Chick were married for three and a half years, and the court says both “are good parents and bonded with their son.”
Some of you think that Austin Chick is behaving like a butthurt douche in this situation, but I genuinely feel sorry for him a little bit. I believe that he and Morena were having problems, but I also think that he believed they were trying to work it out, and they were still living in the same house together and raising their kid. And then she starting banging Ben McKenzie. So what is Austin supposed to do? Uproot his life and go to NYC so he can watch his pregnant, estranged wife play house with her new lover? It’s a really messy situation.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
What a mess. I don’t really follow these people and have no idea who they are. Sadly there are kids involved.
Last thing I’d want to do is jump into a new relationship with a newborn when my old one is such a mess. For some reason, Can’t help but think this baby was planned on her part.
I agree it is messy, but he certainly is acting douchy. They were having problems, things were not working, she was paying for him to stay in a NYC apartment. So refusing to stay in NYC now is just so he gets back at her and hurts her – and implicitly their son. He is unemployed and living on her dime, and if he was willing to be in NYC before, the only reason to not do it now is spite.
I am not saying Morena did right by getting pregnant before she filed for divorce. But it’s obvious she has moved on and they still share a child, and having a messy divorce and confrontational relationship with the child’s mother is not going to be good for any of them. Making his young child be the one who has to pay by being shuttled back and forth between two coasts is not going to help. He can be look for writing/producing work in NYC, hopefully get a job there and once his son is older re-evaluate his choices. (Yes, lots of people make these type of sacrifices – not for exes, for their kids. Haven’t we been saying that about Kelly?? Well, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. It’s not like he has a job to abandon.)
I feel for him but what he now does will only hurt his son. He was ok with her paying his bills so he could be in his son’s life. Which is an awesome thing to to for both of them!
But now he gives a flying f*** about living near his son and wants his 2 years old child to travel between cities?
Sorry no. This soon may enter Rutherford territory.
And somehow the stories change. He told magazines “there was another man in ‘my’ home and my wife is a cheater. We never wanted a divorce. She played me”
Now the documents paint another story. They split, she rented him a flat, he happily moved there and was ok with the (early divorce?) agreements till he found out she has a new boyfriend?
I think people are inserting whatever narratives they want into this story: he is love-scorned ex/she is being hurt by a vengeful ex. But, we honestly have no idea what went down and can’t make judgments on either end.
I agree. There’s just no way to know what’s up on this one.
Agreed – other than it’s messy and there’s a little kid in the mix who is going to be affected by it.
I just wish people would try to be in stable relationships before they had children. I guess I just don’t get it. The pill is 99% effective. Why bring children into this mess?
The pill is only that effective when taken properly. With typical use the effectiveness drops down to around 85%.
Well, then take it properly. It’s not hard.
Other things can also interfere with effectiveness. If you have to go on antibiotics, then hormonal contraception becomes less effective for a bit. Good doctors and pharmacists will remind you to also use a condom during that time, but many don’t. I needed antibiotics for a sinus infection and my pharmacist made sure to remind me. I already knew, but I appreciate that she took those few seconds to do so, because it could matter for people who are unaware.
I’ve been on birth control 14 years now and never a pregnancy yet. I know that doesn’t mean it is impossible, but I am really flabbergasted how so many people I speak to don’t use condoms/birth control and are “surprised” by pregnancy. I have a friend who got pregnant after 2 months dating at age 35. She wanted a kid, but not this soon into a new relationship. They weren’t using anything though, so it shouldn’t have come to as much of a surprise as it was.
Even if you can’t or don’t want to take hormonal birth control, condoms are pretty darn effective. Used correctly (also not hard to do) every time they’re something like 98% effective.
I’m not going to judge because birth control does fail, but it seems like a whole lot of people don’t bother. And then are puzzled when nature takes its course.
“I’m not going to judge because birth control does fail, but it seems like a whole lot of people don’t bother. And then are puzzled when nature takes its course. ”
This is the impression that I get too.
I agree with the both of you wholeheartedly! People are lazy/reckless—even into their 30’s and 40’s.
Come on guys stop making excuses for Morena.
I never got the vibe that Morena and Ben’s “relationship” was that serious. I think it was two adults hooking up (nothing wrong with that) and then she accidentally got pregnant. Now they are trying tomake things right and be a family for the baby. Just my opinion, i could be wrong.
This is what I’m thinking, too. At least on Ben’s part. I know he’s not innocent in all of this, but I feel like she wasn’t being truthful about the status of her marriage when they started hooking up. As in, saying one thing to the husband, and another thing to Ben. If he was the type of sleaze to go for married women, we would have heard something about it before now. Not defending him, just saying there may be another side.
On a personal note: I had a friend telling guys she was divorced the day she filled papers. Her husband wasn’t even aware of it yet. He knew they had problems but he thought they were working through them. Then for months on, she was hooking up with guys under the guise she was actually already divorced. So, it happens.
He is just being vindictive at this point. I always felt his statements about reconciliation and working on the relationship were overblown and fake sounding. She is paying for him to have a place to live in NYC, which makes it easier for their child, and he wants to be a douche. He is not working, so there is no valid reason for him to be in LA other than to make things more difficult for everyone.
Absolutely. Sounds like he was talking a big game about coparenting but as soon as his wife finds a new boyfriend, he moves 3000 miles away? What a selfish twit. The article mentions he was or is unemployed–I wonder how long he’d been unemployed? Sounds to me like maybe she got tired of supporting his dead arse. AND she was renting him an apartment? Come on. If the genders were reversed, people would be calling for his head.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying she didn’t handle this whole situation disgracefully. But from what I’ve read, this guy sounds like a douchelord whom she’s well rid of.
He had a place to stay close to his kid and jumped on a plane because his soon-to-be ex had moved on. There’s no doubt he’s being a douche. He’s trying to control her. As long as he’s fighting her and making things difficult for her and his kid, he will be a douche and lose all sympathy from me.
Someone needs to step up and be the adult, and I suppose it falls on Austin’s shoulders, because Morena has “moved on”. How convenient for her. I used to adore her.
I cannot imagine having to tell my kid that not only have mommy and daddy split up but mommy is already with another man and having a new baby. That poor child.
Oh, relax, the child will be fine. Children are incredibly resilient and are capable of having happy, loving, and fulfilling childhoods in all kinds of unconventional family arrangements.
I have always found the “children are resilient” argument somewhat self serving, a way for callous people to justify their own bad behaviours.
It’s not resilience, when people make all your decisions for you, and force change on you, that in no way benefits you. It’s survival.
Given Austin’s behavior, he doesn’t seem capable of maturity. Just because Morena moved on doesn’t mean that she has been the less mature party. She was paying for a place for him to stay in NYC. He just want to be difficult because he knows she should restrict the amount that she travels due to the pregnancy. That may not bode well for him with the court, even after she delivers her baby.
Oh sorry, I didn’t realize you knew Austin well enough to speak of his intent.
Pray continue to expound on what his intentions are towards Morena.
@original kay
Right, he was totally thinking about his son when he decided to take his unemployed self to LA, instead of staying in the over $6000 place she was renting for him so that the son could see both parents on a regular basis. That is just the sign of a super mature man.
Yeah, no, his childish behavior is why the court ruled in Morena’s favor at least for right now. Even if he can’t stand her, he has the choice to not behave that way for the son’s sake.
In my opinion both Morena and the ex have been douches in this situation. Morena made a decision to start dating and get pregnant before she made a clean break from the marriage that she shared with the father of her child. It was a bad move and it doesn’t take psychic abilities to know that making a choice to start dating and having sex with someone at that stage of her marriage would end badly. Now in his case, he’s not innocent either. I’m sure he knew she was dating, but instead of moving on and making it easier on himself, which in return would make it easier on his son, he decided to stick around and wait to “win” her back over. He could have spent that time looking for a damn job. Now back to her, ok so you got pregnant. Does that mean that you have to rush to move this new man into your home? Now what all of these people could decide to do is pause, take a step back, and just parent their children for a while and put the romantic relationships aside until everyone has a clear head and the hurt feelings/jealousy has subsided a bit but I’m sure that won’t happen and we’ll be seeing yet another messy custody fight and divorce drag on for over a year. Again!
If this were just gossip about two people without children it would not be so annoying but with children involved, it just rubs me the wrong way.
Why is she wearing a negligee out in public?
(That’s all I’ve got on this mess …)
I hate it when someone moves their new man in right away, when they have children. No thought to the child’s sense of stability at all. It’s truly quite selfish. I don’t care if you cheat, date whomever, but don’t throw a new man into your child’s left when he’s still getting used to a new home and his father being absent. Enough.
Children are resilient! didn’t you get the memo?
**sarcasm**
@originalkay.. Lol..
I’m team Austin. They lived in LA, but her career took her to NYC so he relocated across the country to co-parent as well as try to work on their marriage, and she then cheats on him with a co-worker.
The baby being Ben’s might just be wishful thinking on Morena’s part. My guess is that Austin will want to have a paternity test done when the child is born. (Ben hasn’t said anything but I’m guessing he does, too.) As far as I’m concerned, Morena has selfishly created a toxic mess of the highest order.
That said, now that the judge has made his ruling, Austin should man up and move back to NYC for his son’s sake.