Heidi Klum has filed for an emergency hearing to bring her four kids with her to Germany, and is claiming that her ex-husband Seal doesn’t want them to travel.
In the filing obtained by People, Klum claims she wants to bring their kids, Leni, 16, Henry, 14, Johan, 13, and Lou, 10, with her to film Next Top Model, but that Seal is preventing her over concerns about the pandemic.
The America’s Got Talent judge argues that while they technically share custody, in reality, they spend the majority of their time with her.
"Henry's time with our children is sporadic at best," Klum wrote in her declaration.
She added: "I am well aware of all of the necessary precautions associated with the COVID-19 virus, and would never put our children at risk — I have taken all the precautions for Germany the same way I do in the United States,” adding that she is "grateful" to have the ability to work given the current state of the economy.
Klum is also ready to make concessions: "There will be a three-week break for the Christmas holidays … Though the children were originally slated to spend this Christmas break with me (as Henry spent Christmas 2019 with them), I am willing to agree that Henry spend the Christmas break with them again this year so that the children can be with their father during this time, if Henry would like this.”
Her daughter Leni also submitted docs. She wrote: "This is hard because I love both of my parents, but I feel like I need to speak up. I understand that my siblings are too young to speak to the judge, so I am happy to speak for all of us. My mom needs to film in Germany for a few months and my siblings and I want to go with her."
But in documents obtained by The Blast, Seal said that he thinks Klum is planning something more permanent. “I believe Heidi has a hidden agenda to move the children to Germany,” Seal asserts.
He continued: “Notwithstanding Heidi’s request, if granted, it could in effect move the children away from me and their home here in Los Angeles to Germany for what could be an indefinite period of time, given the uncertainty of the impact of Covid-19 on this country’s and Germany’s travel restrictions which could change at any time and prevent the children from leaving Germany or from entering the United States.”
Klum and Seal finalized their divorce in October of 2014 after nine years of marriage. Last year, she married Tom Kaulitz.
They are hardly the only celeb parents struggling to co-parent peacefully during COVID. Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale recently said of sharing custody of his kids with Gwen Stefani during the pandemici: "I know who's around me and know who's bringing the corona — no one — but you send your kids out somewhere else and now they're coming back to you, and now you're prone to whoever they're with so it's a tricky one with all divorced parents."
