“Who decided to take a baby who’s being breastfed away from his mother?”
Australian actress Melissa George has spoken about the brutal battle for custody of her two sons, aged three and one, after a harrowing domestic violence incident.
The 40-year-old actress, who was born in Perth, began her relationship with French entrepreneur Jean David Blanc in 2011. The pair separated in September last year, after allegations of domestic abuse. Now, her sons, three-year-old Raphael and one-year-old Solal, aren’t allowed to leave France and she’s fighting for their custody.
On last night’s episode of Sunday Night, George told Channel Seven how a 48-year-old Blanc threw her against a door frame in their Paris home last September. She claimed he slammed her head into a wardrobe and struck her in the mouth after a night out.
She couldn’t move her neck; she had bruising on her back, buttocks and forehead; and, upon reaching the police station after a bloodied Uber ride, she vomited into a waste basket and was taken to hospital.
Both George and Blanc were found guilty of abuse (Blanc suffered scratches).
“I fought for my life,” she told Channel Seven.
Top Comments
The real issue here is the attitude of the French courts to a woman who is not French. Her wealthy French husband beats her up with clear evidence of injury, the court makes a decision that they share week-on week-off custody of very young children, which prevents her working as she has no French visa and her work is in the U.S principally. Her attitude is she cannot work overseas unless she can take the children with her when she goes. That attitude is perfectly understandable as the French legal system appears biased in favour of her husband and further he appears unscrupulous in using the financial imbalance in the relationship to further his cause. I think she has reason to feel if she leaves for work without the children this would be held against her - she may lose any custody. I'm a bit of a Francophile, but the sexist and biased nature of this decision-making appalls me. France is supposedly a liberal country, but this decision has more In common with some extremist Muslim countries, where women have no more rights than animals.
some of the comments i have read online is absolutely appalling, this woman is a victim of DV, this a reason many women do not come forward for fear of not being believed, the risk of loosing there children as well, so what she shunned Australia she isn't the first and wont be the last, she's a woman and i commend her bravery for speaking out i am in the mist of my own battle and its the worse thing to go thru..
Oh nataile, what you said is right, people are just so unkind.
Good luck to you in your battle, stay strong, you will come out the other end. I have a friend going through the same at the moment and I try to lift her spirits each day.