Jaime King, Kyle Newman’s messy divorce allegations include emotional abuse, addiction and child endangerment
On Monday, May 18, actor Jaime King filed for divorce from her husband of 12 years, Kyle Newman, and also asked for a restraining order against him. King filed the legal documents on Monday in Los Angeles, California. Since then, things have rapidly escalated.
Soon, 41-year-old King filed for a "domestic violence prevention petition" against Newman, along with an emergency motion seeking child custody, which was "denied without prejudice".
The divorce that looked barely amicable has now turned downright messy. A People magazine report, based on legal documents of the proceedings, says that her petition states allegations of verbal and emotional abuse against Newman along with the fact that Newman is allegedly withholding their sons, six-year-old James Knight, and four-year-old Leo Thames from her.
While in a 2018 US Weekly interview, the ‘Black Summer’ actor had said, "Ultimately, my husband is my best friend and at the same time my lover, the father of my children, my favorite human in the whole world,” per the new People magazine report, the couple has allegedly been struggling for five-and-a-half years. Newman "berated me ... told me I was a terrible person and a terrible mother," she claimed in the documents.
She also claimed Newman had “appeared at a friend's house ... screaming and harassing me, chased me in his car, isolated me from friends, professional contacts, and employers by telling them lies about me, staged a fake intervention to force me into confinement.” She added that Newman was now refusing to “return our children to their home in Los Angeles.”
A source close to Newman, however, told Us Weekly that “Kyle went to Pennsylvania where his family is, with his kids when the pandemic began and has been parenting by himself throughout the pandemic. He took them there to get them out of the hotspot that was L.A. and so that they could be close to his family.”
Another source told Us Weekly that the estranged couple was in agreement about Newman taking their sons to Pennsylvania, "because they both thought things were going to get really bad in L.A. with coronavirus and they wanted to get the kids out."
Battling Newman’s claims that she was an addict, King claimed in the documents that earlier this year, she agreed to go to the treatment facility so that she could prove she wasn't using drugs. King claimed, after undergoing testing at the facility, that no drugs or alcohol were found in her system.
She further alleges that when she informed Newman she wanted a divorce in February, Newman flew to Calgary and became angry after she refused to spend time alone with him. Allegedly, Newman demeaned and berated her in a crowded lunchroom in the presence of their sons, and told her colleagues that she would kill herself by using drugs and alcohol.
She claimed that she has “suffered the most confusing trauma-filled experiences involving emotional manipulation and gaslighting” caused by Newman, adding, that she felt anxious and "sick to my stomach" at every encounter.
But King isn’t the only one making the allegations. In an ex parte request filed on Friday, May 23, Newman called King “a chronic drug addict and alcoholic who refuses to acknowledge that she has a problem, let alone seek meaningful treatment for such problem.”
He added that these issues have allegedly affected her ability as a parent, further claiming that he was told by several friends that King had allegedly been drinking and using opiates while pregnant with their son James. He also claimed that she used drugs while pregnant with their son Leo, saying they found out at her 20-week prenatal appointment that their “unborn child was also addicted due to her continued drug use.”
"We found out at that same appointment that Leo Thames had a congenital heart defect and would need surgery to survive as soon as he was born," Newman added. "I was devastated."
He also mentioned incidents of King driving under the influence with their sons in the car, allegedly becoming so intoxicated in front of them that “they thought their mother was dying”. He accused her of abandoning them “for days at a time to get drunk and high instead of care for them,” adding, “At one point, Jaime left Leo Thames at his doctor’s appointment with the nanny, only to be found over a half-hour later at the liquor store across the street buying a bottle of alcohol.”
"Immediately thereafter, Jaime refused to let the nanny buckle Leo Thames in his car seat, insisting that Jaime do it herself,” he further alleged. “Jaime failed to buckle Leo Thames in, failed to close his car door, then took off down San Vicente at 60 mph with Leo Thames, then approximately two years old, hanging out of the side of the speeding vehicle."
“This is only one harrowing event among many,” claimed Newman.
He also claimed that King admitted to an affair she had while working in Canada while denying allegations of abuse. "I have never laid a hand on Jaime nor would I," he said. "In the past, threats of a legal and public battle on Jaime’s part would cause me to back down as I have never had any desire to fight her."
The judge reportedly denied both Newman and King's requests -- the children will physically remain with Newman in Pennsylvania until a non-emergency hearing can take place.
A representative for King told TMZ on Friday, May 23, "This is another vicious, failed attempt of Kyle to continue his abuse of Jaime and manipulate the court system."