Even before the divorce filing, the apparent smear campaign against Sophie Turner kicked off. It was cringe and it backfired, but it was a sign of things to come.
Most guessed that her split from Joe Jonas was unlikely to stay amicable. Yes, even after their joint statement to the contrary.
There are a lot of ways for a divorce to tailspin. One is money, and the other is kids. Joe and Sophie have chosen Door #2.
In a lawsuit, Sophie claims that Joe is refusing to return their children to England. This could get much worse, very quickly.
On Thursday, September 21, the Game of Thrones star filed suit in Manhattan court.
She requests that her ex, Joe Jonas, return their 3-year-old, Willa, and their 14-month-old daughter (documents identify her as “D”), to England.
This legal filing comes only after standard discussion and negotiation between the exes broke down.
People got a hold of the court documents.
Therein, Sophie calls for “the immediate return of children wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained.”
Her attorneys are straight up referring to this as “wrongful retention,” and claiming that it began on September 20. That legal language is not insignificant.
According to the filing, Sophie and Joe had previously agreed to declare England their “forever home.”
She even has specifics, offering that these conversations took place over the holidays in 2022.
At the time, Joe and Sophie were preparing for the year ahead. But they had no idea the heartbreak and conflict that 2023 would bring.
And there’s more. The (former) couple had sold their Miami home where they previously resided.
Back in April of this year, just five months before their split, they were in the process of purchasing a home in the English countryside.
This was just before Sophie began filming on the Joan mini-series. This has been her acting project for the summer of 2023.
With Joe touring with his brothers and their band (The Jonas Brothers), they apparently agreed that the girls would travel with him.
While touring, he had more daytime hours to devote to them than Sophie did. (That’s the nature of concerts vs acting)
In her filing, Sophie notes that she had “hesitation” about this “temporary arrangement.” For obvious reasons.
The filing also sheds further light upon their split.
Sophie writes that their marriage broke down “very suddenly” following an August 15 argument.
Just a few weeks later, on September 5, Joe filed to divorce her. And Sophie found out about that “from the media” after the fact.
(That does explain why their joint statement came later … and why Joe’s team was apparently already attempting a clumsy smear campaign)
Two weeks later, the two met up to discuss what would come next. This is when the topic of custody came to a head.
Sophie “reiterated” the plan to move to England. This was when, she alleges in the filing, Joe announced his change of heart.
“The Father has possession of the children’s passports,” Sophie’s lawsuit accuses.
“He refuses to return the passports to the Mother,” the filing lists.
“And,” Sophie’s legal team describes, he “refuses to send the children home to England with the Mother.”
Clearly, they had weeks to discuss this back and forth.
But earlier this week, on September 19, Joe’s legal team confirmed to Sophie’s that he had no plans to return the passports or provide consent for their daughters to move.
Well, this is already getting ugly. And it’s likely to only get worse.