Despite their money and fame, many celebrities deal with the same issues as Utah parents when it comes to their children and the end of their marriages. On the other hand, they also have issues that most parents never face. For example, movie star Scarlett Johansson recently filed for divorce from her husband, Romain Dauriac, and where their daughter will live could be the central issue.
Court filings indicate that Johansson asked the court for joint custody, but requested that the couple’s daughter live with her. Dauriac claims that her filing was a “preemptive strike,” and he wants the couple’s daughter to live with him overseas. Reports indicate that the couple signed a prenuptial agreement, but it did not address issues relating to their daughter such as custody and child support.
Dauriac says that he has been their daughter’s primary caretaker while Johansson makes movies. He no longer wants to follow her, and says that Johansson could visit her daughter in Paris anytime she chooses. This is why he says that she filed the divorce in New York in order to keep the jurisdiction for the divorce in the United States. While most Utah parents might not have the same distance to consider, some parents do file in the jurisdiction where they reside before the other parent can file in theirs.
Jurisdictional arguments can detract from the important part of a divorce involving custody issues — the children. In fact, in divorces where two loving parents are involved in a custody battle, they tend to focus more on how much the parents fail to get along than what is best for the children. Could this be the case in Johansson’s divorce? Only time will tell. In the meantime, parents might benefit from directing their focus toward working together in order to give their children access to both parents, which tends to benefit everyone involved.
Source: ABC News, “Scarlett Johansson’s divorce filing prompts custody battle”, Patrick Mairs, March 8, 2017
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