When actress Alice Evans announced on Twitter that her husband, Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd, had told her he was leaving her because he no longer loved her, it set the stage for what would become one of Hollywood’s most toxic divorce disputes.
More than three years later, with a trial date finally on the horizon, the war is still raging and Alice has an explosive version of events to give about her ex-husband and his relationship with their children Ella, 15, and Elsie, 13.
She says Ioan is responsible for her sadly broken relationship with her children, claiming that he shockingly recently sent a “third party” to tell them he no longer wants to see them.
In an extraordinary coming forward, Alice, 56, says Ioan did not tell his daughters in person that he had a new partner, Bianca Wallace, 32, that they were living together, or even that they were engaged, and instead decided to make announcements to his ‘fans’ on Instagram first.
In an affidavit filed in court, Alice says the Fantastic Four actor bears sole blame for the bitterness he felt after leaving his family and falling in love with aspiring actress Wallace, a former extra on his TV series Hornblower.
Alice says Ioan did not tell his daughters Ella and Elsie in person that Loan had a new partner, that they were living together or even that they were engaged.
The statement says: ‘Ioan’s statement clearly omits any responsibility for his own behaviour which contributed to the high level of acrimony in this divorce.
‘Not only did he not tell me in person that he wanted a divorce, he didn’t tell the kids either. He also didn’t tell any of us in person that he had (and was living with) a new partner. He chose Instagram for that. He again chose Instagram to inform the kids that he was engaged.
‘Instead of asking himself what he could have done to distance himself from him or to push them away and mend the relationship, he chooses to repeat what he has been doing for three years: the claim that I am to blame for the estrangement between him and the children. Ioan used this narrative to support his request for a custody evaluation.’
This assessment was conducted last year with a professional evaluator chosen by Ioan, who interviewed both parents, both children and numerous adults involved in their care.
The warring couple then agreed that Alice would have 100 percent custody of the children.
In this week’s filing, she writes: “I would love for Ioan and the children to mend their relationship, but as Ioan has made it clear to the children through a third party that he ‘no longer wants to be a part of their lives’, this point is moot.”
His daughter Ella previously filed a restraining order for “prevention of domestic violence” against her father and Wallace following an alleged incident at the couple’s home that hinted at family difficulties.
Ioan said Ella spilled milk on his and Wallace’s bed and wrote “f***” with a mustard bottle, as well as spraying it on the kitchen worktop and floor before running out of their home.
Ella’s request for a restraining order was later withdrawn by the teenager during a court hearing.
In court papers filed last week, Alice added: “I do not agree with Ioan’s conclusory statement that he has found it impossible to co-parent with me. I have done everything the court ordered and have tried consistently over the past three years to foster an easy co-parenting situation for our children. It appears Ioan is not interested.”
Alice Evans met Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd on the set of 102 Dalmatians and they married in Mexico in 2007.
Noting that she has not seen them since she chose to “walk away,” she said: “Before she walked away, she refused to drop them off or pick them up at my house and refused to take them to any of her therapy sessions.
‘Before May 2023, when I used to talk to them on FaceTime, I would make them show every corner of the room on camera to ‘prove’ that I wasn’t hiding in the room. He doesn’t even communicate with me about his needs.
‘At first, he hired a private investigator through whom I was to communicate. At some point in the last few months, he completely canceled his OFW (Our Family Wizard, a family diary app for divorced parents) subscription. He has no interest in co-parenting.’
Last week, Ioan’s lawyers filed documents revealing that he had spent only nine hours with his daughters this year. His version of the fractured relationship with his daughters is different: he blames Alice for distancing him from his children.
In an affidavit included in a filing before a preliminary hearing at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles on Monday, Sept. 9, he said, “I made the difficult decision to settle my child custody suit 50/50 in part because of Alice’s propensity to abuse the family law process to remain relevant in the public eye at the expense of me and our children. I spared the children and myself from continued abuse and settled the custody suit.”
Elsewhere in his statement he says Alice blocked his lawyers’ attempts to schedule therapy sessions to help the children reunite with him, adding: “I believe it was Alice’s own constant interference and alienation that caused the reunification therapy to be unsuccessful.”
Alice says she is “horrified” by her husband’s claim that she disrupted their reunification therapy sessions, and “claimed” to have had a panic attack, created “dramatic scenes” and called an ambulance.
Alice wrote: ‘To correct your story, I suffered an acute episode of malignant hypertension (a sudden rise in blood pressure) in the parking lot outside the therapist’s office. My mother died when she was only three years older than I am now and I absolutely believed I was having a heart attack.
‘The reunification therapist, Karin Manger, got into the ambulance with me and was told by the paramedics that my blood pressure was 260 over 200. Ioan was not present. I am not sure on what basis he is claiming that I made this up, as my blood pressure was still dangerously high even some 48 hours later, and I am now on three different blood pressure medications.’
He accuses the actress of carrying out a “long-standing smear campaign” against him and his fiancée and says she “continues to violate” a restraining order that prohibits him from posting about them on social media. Something Alice strongly denies.
Alice says she is “bewildered” as to why her ex-husband continues to persist with the social media posts and messages from 2021 and 2022 that led to her obtaining a restraining order.
‘I regret having posted those posts and sent those messages. I have not behaved that way for YEARS.
“In fact, the police dealt with Ioan’s allegations that I continued to post on social media through fake accounts and found them to be completely false. I sincerely hope that, at least for the sake of our children who have been dealing with this for four years, Ioan can accept my apology and we can move on to the real issues that remain to be resolved.”
In her filing, made in response to other allegations last week that she had misled people about her finances, Alice submitted an affidavit saying her ex-husband has “grossly mischaracterized” her financial position.
She adds that she is, in fact, bankrupt, as she previously attested, saying in a legal filing that her ex-husband left her “completely in the lurch” financially, taking away her access to a joint account.
She says he even cut off her phone and internet in January 2023 without warning, before defaulting on the mortgage and forcing the sale of the marital home.
Ella Gruffudd, right, previously filed a “domestic violence prevention” restraining order against her father and his fiancée following an alleged incident at the couple’s home.
Alice was granted a restraining order in February 2022 after posting a series of abusive messages about Ioan and his now fiancée Bianca on social media.
She also says she had to pawn two watches to pay rent in August and has “no idea” how she will meet her financial obligations in September as Ioan allegedly “ignored” her pleas for help.
Ioan says his ex-wife is spreading a “false narrative” and has “misrepresented” his income.
He says he makes $14,000 a month and that she should receive $2,903 of that in child support. Instead, he says she spends $15,800 a month.
He says that when his ex-wife launched a GoFundMe campaign claiming she was bankrupt, she had a total of $86,000 available in two accounts. She counters that at the time she owed a huge amount of money to lawyers and needed to pay utility bills, rent and a nanny’s salary, as her husband was not paying any of this.
Ioan claims that Alice had enough money in her bank account to pay the rent at the beginning of June. She replies that it was actually May’s rent, paid almost a month later.
Ioan and Alice met on the set of 102 Dalmatians over 20 years ago, when they played on-screen lovers Kevin and Chloe. They later fell in love in real life and married in Mexico in 2007.
The legal disputes over the divorce have been going on for over three years now. Alice was granted a restraining order in February 2022 after posting a series of abusive messages about Ioan and his new girlfriend Bianca on social media and allegedly sending him over 100 text messages.
Court documents claim Alice had falsely branded him a “child molester” online and Ioan accused her of creating anonymous social media accounts (as many as 22 on Twitter/X) that she used to criticise him to her followers. Alice denies this and says a police investigation has determined that the claims are “completely false”.
She remains banned from posting about Ioan or his fiancée until August 2025.
However, Ioan’s fiancée, Ms Wallace, made two incendiary posts earlier this year, accusing Alice of abusing hundreds of people. Alice believes these posts contradict a 2023 order requiring all parties not to publish derogatory material about others.
It now looks like Ms Wallace could enter the fray as she is on a list of witnesses whom Ioan wants to call next week.
The only thing both sides seem to agree on is that they want the fight to end. Could one of the longest-running divorces in Hollywood history finally be coming to an end?