Jesse Williams and his estranged wife Aryn Drake-Lee have been waging a very messy public divorce battle for months. For the most part, the fight is about custody of their two children, but there’s a good chance that child custody is a proxy war over Jesse’s possible/probably affair with Minka Kelly. Aryn filed paperwork with the court saying she wanted full custody of the kids, and that Jesse had anger issues and that he was bringing strange women around and more. Jesse responded by saying that Aryn was the one who was always screaming at him, and that he makes money so she can be a stay-at-home mom. Well… apparently Aryn and Jesse have come to a temporary truce. Maybe.
Jesse Williams and estranged wife Aryn Drake-Lee have reached an agreement in their divorce … at least temporarily on the subject of custody of their 2 children … and there’s an indirect connection to Minka Kelly. The warring couple will share joint legal custody … which means all decisions made regarding the health, welfare and upbringing will be made between the 2 of them.
The agreement, obtained by TMZ, provides neither parent can make derogatory remarks about the other in front of the children. They also can’t use the children as messengers. And, the agreement provides that neither Jesse nor Aryn “shall introduce a person with whom he or she has a romantic relationship to the children until the relationship has endured at least 6 months.”
The agreement does not break down the physical custody arrangement. TMZ broke the story … Jesse has been linked to Minka Kelly, which has become a bone of contention in the nasty divorce.
Yeah, while this doesn’t solve the issue of custody, it’s an admission – on Aryn’s part – that Jesse will be involved in the kids’ lives on every major issue. So I’d say that Aryn has made her peace with joint custody, wouldn’t you? But she still got something: Jesse can’t have Minka around…? Maybe that’s the catch: Aryn wants to know how long Minka and Jesse have been happening. My guess is that they’ve been happening for a lot longer than six months.
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
Surprise! She didn’t actually have anything on him that would justify full custody smh. I really hate it when parents use their kids to hurt each other.
Exactly. This smelled foul from the start. Okay he was a terrible husband…to use that to take his kids away make you look worse in my eyes. Only person you actually hurt is your children.
There are no innocents here except the kids. He’s gross and a liar and started posting pictures of his kids on social media to help his image the minute this broke. She let her anger overshadow everything. Just a boatload of negativity all around.
Plus we don’t know physical custody. My guess is she has the lion’s share. If they were at 50/50 he would have leaked that.
Was she demanding sole legal custody or sole physical custody though? Or both? Because agreeing to joint legal custody isn’t the same as joint physical custody – it just means that they both will get to make the important decisions together and both be responsible for their health etc. I assume that the kids will still be living with her primarily – though it kind of is unclear what’s going on with that based on the article.
Agree with all of you about Aryn’s actions. Kids are not toys you can take away from your spouse. Unfortunately so many couples forget that during divorce proceedings…
@Mia4s and @Erinn Since Jesse is an actor, his working schedule is not going to be stable. So these two won’t handle joint physical custody like two teachers for example. Aryn probably will be getting kids more often than Jesse whatever the physical custody is. I got full custody to be legal custody rather than physical one, I may be wrong. Sole legal custody gives all the parental rights to one parent AFAIK and very rare to actually get.
@Rey
Actually there are no surprises here joint legal is pretty much standard fare to rule otherwise would be to give one parent total autonomy over decisions regarding school, health. religion extra curricular activities , place or residence etc which is pretty rare. Even drug addicts, convicts and abusive parents often still maintain some legal custody or say in decisions pertaining to their kids
Physical custody however is another issue, I have said her before I do not approve of either parent using the kids as pawns. I will say though that I used to follow Jesse on SM and looong before this kerfuffle i used to wonder how Jesse could spend so much time on set. still hang out with his coworkers off set and fly all over the country activisting with then toddler and newborn at home. It seemed that Aryn was doing all the heavy lifting when it came to the kids (not that it deprives of his right as father) but one could see where she could be concerned about his ability to be hands on with them when he really didn’t seem to be that hands on on the marriage
Honestly, if it’s taken this long to agree not to bad mouth each other and bring a boyfriend /girlfriend around the kids. This is going to be a very long and expensive divorce . There’s a lot of anger (justifiably ) and it’s not even close to be resolved . That’s my two cents .
I still don’t think children that small/young should be going in-between homes. They should sleep in the same house every night.
I guess the kids that don’t even have homes are really out of luck then, eh?
Did you really just bring in homeless children to this? What exactly are you trying to say because if its to show you’re a fool then mission accomplished.
right….my god
Yeah, my parents are not seperated but i feel like i would be very confused as a kid by joint physical custody but what else can courts do?
Most of the time courts go for joint custody because ,especially in no-fault divorces, they cannot really justify giving primary custody to one parent. How do you decide which parent gets the primary custody? The one that provides or the one that takes primary care? Both of them are problematic and unfair to apply and open for abuse by advantaged sides.
@Archigoodwin I think everybody would agree homeless kids are indeed shit out of luck. Am I missing something?
Agreed. Many states delay overnights until age 3 for just that reason.
That’s a bog standard custody provision. Aryn didn’t really get anything.
I hope Aryn is wishing up. The best way to help yourself when dealing with a cheating partner is to leave them. Let them ho and move on (there’s a typo but I’m leaving it in since it fits…lol). Let them be the next perdon’s problem. Leave them or divorce them for your own sanity and for the peace of mind of the children if there are any involved. I don’t believe in that “staying together for the sake of the children” that some couples use. That seems to only mess up the kid(S) in the long run.
Aryn probably doesn’t think Minka is gonna last so she’s trying to secure that “no new romantic interest being introduced to the kids until after 6 months” scenario for Jesse’s future women.
Kaiser
As an Aside I just want to say thanks for choosing those pics of Aryn to accompany the article
She has had kids back to back and has been pregnant or post pregnant for much of their 41/2 year marriage and I cant help but notice that many MSM sites seem to go out of their way to and use the most unflattering pic of her that they can find which reeks of well …something
As for this latest development I really hope they can both put their stiff aside and put the kids first that all I got