Joe Jonas has responded to his estranged wife Sophie Turner's claim that he is withholding their daughters' passports.
On Thursday, the Game of Thrones actress filed a lawsuit against her estranged husband requesting to secure "the immediate return of children wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained". She claimed that Joe was withholding the children's passports so she could not take them to her native England, where they allegedly relocated in April.
In a lengthy statement issued by his representative to multiple outlets, the Jonas Brothers singer insisted the filing was "misleading".
"This is an unfortunate legal disagreement about a marriage that is sadly ending. When language like 'abduction' is used, it is misleading at best, and a serious abuse of the legal system at worst," the statement reads. "The children were not abducted. After being in Joe's care for the past three months at the agreement of both parties, the children are currently with their mother. Sophie is making this claim only to move the divorce proceedings to the UK and to remove the children from the U.S. permanently."
The rep alleged that the former couple's daughters have been in Sophie's care since Sunday, when she and Joe had a meeting in New York to discuss their co-parenting agreement.
"Less than 24 hours later, Sophie advised that she wanted to take the children permanently to the UK. Thereafter, she demanded via this filing that Joe hand over the children’s passports so that she could take them out of the country immediately," they continued.
According to the statement, the 34-year-old filed for divorce in Florida earlier this month as it was "the appropriate jurisdiction for the case", given that the family lived in Miami until earlier this year. A court in Florida has since issued an order restricting both parents from relocating the children. Joe's rep insisted he would be "in violation of the Florida Court order" if he gave Sophie the kids' passports.
Joe, who also denied blindsiding Sophie with his divorce filing, insisted he is fine with the children being raised in America and England. However, he noted, "The children were born in the U.S. and have spent the vast majority of their lives in the U.S. They are American citizens."
The pair married in 2019. They have a three-year-old daughter named Willa, while their second daughter, whose name has not been shared, was born in July 2022.
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