Spotted at Paris Fashion Week: Kelly Rutherford and her son Hermès Gustaf Daniel Giersch dazzling side-by-side.
A decade after the Gossip Girl actress and her ex-husband Daniel Giersch were embroiled in a six-year long custody battle over son Hermès, 18, and daughter Helena Grace Rutherford Giersch, 15, she made a rare public appearance with her eldest son in the City of Light.
For the fashionable Jan. 27 outing, the mother-son duo posed together at a Christian Dior fashion show, where the 56-year-old stuck to her old-money style with a long black dress pulled together with an accent belt and matching handbag, as well as a Rahul Mishra event, where she donned a floral low-cut dress. As for her son, Hermès kept it classic at both events with a dark suit, white button up and slicked-back hairstyle.
This glamorous outing comes amid a relatively serene time in Kelly’s life. In fact, she recently shared insight into her “quite peaceful” life abroad after moving to Monaco to be closer to her son.
“It's the opposite of what everyone thinks it is, for me at least,” she told Travel + Leisure magazine in September. “It's a place you can come and really just be quiet.”
“I just walk the dogs, hang out with the kids, and run errands,” she shared of her daily life in the Mediterranean. “If there's a gallery opening or something like that, I’ll go just to see. But it's mostly just quiet time here for me.”
But things haven’t always been this peaceful for Kelly and her family. The Melrose Place actress filed for divorce from her ex in 2008 after two years of marriage. And at the time, she was still pregnant with their daughter. While the couple was initially able to come to a joint custody agreement, a judge ruled in 2012 that the children should live overseas with their father in Monaco, given that the Germany native could not come to the states after his U.S. visa was revoked.
The following year, Kelly , who had admitted to being on the “brink of bankruptcy” from devoting her time and nearly $2 million into getting custody of her kids, filed for bankruptcy.
“Every penny from Gossip Girl,” she told E! News in 2013, “my pension, my stocks has been spent fighting for my children."
Then, in 2015, the custody battle escalated when Kelly refused to return the children to Monaco after they spent the summer with her, resulting in a New York City judge ordering the children to be sent back to their father.
Now, a decade later, she has spent time mending her relationships with her two kids and enjoying the time they get to spend together during her new chapter living in Monaco.
"Yes, it was a challenging time,” she told People last February. “It was a heartbreaking time. But I focus on the good most of the time, I really do. I'm very thankful of where we are. I have a great relationship with my kids."