She may have played a wealthy Upper East-Sider on CW's hit series "Gossip Girl," but actress Kelly Rutherford is on the brink of bankruptcy in her real life.
Rutherford has tapped her TV salary savings dry after having to spend "millions of dollars" fighting a four-year custody battle against her ex-husband, German businessman Daniel Giersch — who lives with her two young children in France.
A California family court judge ordered Rutherford’s six-year-old son Hermes and her three-year-old daughter Helena to live in France with their father after his visa was revoked for reasons still unknown (but reported shady business dealings).
ABC News called the decision “one of the worst custody decisions ever.”
"They can come back and visit me during their holidays in the summer, but I have no idea when my children are actually going to be able to come back and live in the United States," Rutherford opened up to E! News.
"I've traveled 40 times to either facilitate contact with their dad or visit them and bring them back and forth and paid for everything," Rutherford continued. "Every penny from 'Gossip Girl,' my pension, my stocks, it's all been spent fighting for my children."
Rutherford tells E! she has spent everything fighting this custody battle, and has little left: "I'm actually living with a friend because I can't afford an apartment right now because I've spent every penny on this."
A friend of Rutherford brought the actress' fight to Change.org with a plea to "Bring Kelly Rutherford's Children Home."
Rutherford has a child custody hearing in September where she hopes to convince a judge to allow the children to live with her in New York.
Watch Rutherford get emotional while explaining her situation to E! News:
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