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Celebrity Family Law – Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams

The divorce between Grey's Anatomy star, Jesse Williams, and his wife, Aryn Drake-Lee, has just taken a nasty turn, with Drake-Lee asking for sole custody of their children. Jesse Williams: Wife Wants Sole Custody, Cites Rage and Dating Habits, tmz.com, August 15, 2017. According to Drake-Lee, Williams "is a reckless parent who has fits of rage" and "exposes their kids to a 'revolving door' of women" which has resulted in psychological damage to the children. She lists several examples to support these allegations, which the judge will consider in determining whether sole custody is in the best interest of the children.

First, Drake-Lee alleges that Williams has emotionally compromised the children by exposing them to at least one or more of his girlfriends. She wants an order prohibiting him from bringing girlfriends around the children until he has been dating them for at least 6 months. In reviewing this allegation, the judge will examine how being around these women affected the children, if at all. If the children are negatively impacted by Williams' introducing them to his girlfriends, then the judge may grant Drake-Lee's request that he not bring them around until they have been dating for a requisite period of time. With this safeguard in place, this particular issue will likely not support an award of sole custody to Drake-Lee because the issue of William's bringing girlfriends around will have been resolved, assuming Williams complies with the restriction.

In support of her claim for sole custody, Drake-Lee next alleges that Williams has a violent temper and once aggressively pursued a neighbor and threatened to kill him with the children in the car. This allegation goes directly to the best interests of the children as Williams is putting them at risk of harm with his erratic driving. If the allegation is found to be true, it may support Drake-Lee's request for sole custody and may even result in some restrictions during Williams' visitation time.

Drake-Lee's final allegation is that Williams post pictures of the kids on social media. The cited article doesn't say that Drake-Lee doesn't want pictures posted at all, only that she's mad because he's doing it as a "buffer for the negative talk about him in the media." This claim is also easily overcome with an order prohibiting both parties from posting about the children on social media. Like the first allegation above, with this safeguard in place, this particular issue will likely not support an award of sole custody because the issue itself will have been resolved.

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