Could Meghan King Edmonds lose custody of the three children she shares with estranged husband Jim Edmonds?
As the former Real Housewives of Orange County cast member continues to travel with boyfriend Christian Schauf, Jim, who lives with girlfriend Kortnie O’Connor, has reportedly grown concerned about how much time Meghan actually spends with the kids as Meghan fires back at his suggestions of neglect with claims of “abuse.”
“Jim is talking with his legal team about getting full custody of the children because he is getting increasingly upset that Meghan has been out of town during portions of her custodial time,” a source close to the family revealed to Us Weekly on August 18. “There have been numerous times where Jim has brought the kids to Meghan for her custodial week only to find she is out of town and he has to leave them with Meghan’s nanny.”
According to the source, Jim “has been told Meghan is looking for a second nanny” to help care for their kids, including three-year-old daughter Aspen and two-year-old twins Hayes and Hart, when she has them.
“[This] raises his concern even more about the amount of time Meghan is away during her custodial time and the amount of time she is actually spending with the children,” the insider continued. “Jim feels if Meghan cannot be present during the week she has the children, then he should just keep them at his house and not leave them with the nannies.”
Jim filed for divorce in October of last year after being accused of having an affair with one of his kids’ nannies, which both he and the nanny denied. In the months since, Jim and Meghan have feuded over the amount of child support he is giving her, with Meghan suggesting she “barely” has enough in child support to pay for her family’s “groceries.”
In response to Jim’s potentially impeding filing for full custody, Meghan shared a statement.
“I am a working, single mother and I have one live-in nanny (with no plans to hire an additional nanny). In the 10 months since Jim walked out on our children and myself, I have left Aspen, Hart and Hayes with my mother for three days (with my nanny helping her). I told Jim I had to be out of town for those days but he told me he couldn’t take custody of the kids because he would also be out of town,” she explained.
Meghan went on to say Jim has a “tattered value system,” and she mentioned, again, that “he had an inappropriate relationship” with their ex-nanny.
“Jim even set Carly [up] with a happily married friend of Jim’s [one] evening and this was not the first time Jim has set Carly up with a married man. This further drives home the tattered value system of this man,” Meghan alleged. “I have had primary custody of my children since he left us, including when I quarantined them for nine weeks in L.A. while Jim contracted COVID while partying in Nashville (and also infected his entire home). And as much as I hate to bring up the past, it was Jim who was sending pictures of his penis to another woman on the day the twins were born, and it was Jim who left us and didn’t request to see the kids for weeks afterward.”
Although Jim’s rep said he does not have a comment “on matters of custody,” he did share a brief statement on the former MLB player’s behalf.
“Jim has seven children and understands that as a parent you run your life around your children, not the other way around. Meghan has continually tried to smear Jim in the press and it seems nothing has changed,” the statement read.
Still, according to Meghan, she has done nothing to deserve her parenting being pulled into question, and when it comes to Jim’s many allegations, he may want to bite his tongue.
“For Jim to suggest I did anything inappropriate, wrong, or questioning my parenting is — quite frankly — not only laughable but unfortunately in line with the way he has treated and spoken to me,” Meghan continued. “I’ve kept my mouth shut through months of abuse and I’ve tried to take the high road knowing this is my children’s father, and I will have to have some sort of relationship with him for the rest of my life as we work to coparent, but don’t for a second think that I don’t have all the evidence I need to back up every fact stated above.”
Photos Credit: Bill Greenblatt/UPI/Alamy Stock Photo, O’Connor/AFF-USA.com/MEGA