The back and forth continues. Meghan King responded to ex-husband Jim Edmonds’ comments after he accused her of not letting him see their children.
“I’m sick of verbal and emotional abuse not being classified as ‘abuse,’” the Real Housewives of Orange County alum, 38, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Friday, February 10. “The courts don’t help protect me, my country club doesn’t protect me, the police don’t enforce, lawyers don’t want to deal with this, so I’m taking matters into my own hands.”
King’s comments come shortly after the former MLB player, 52, alluded to coparenting issues on his respective social media page.
“Sad when your ex tells the kids, you don’t want to see them when you’re busy then doesn’t let you see them when you’re out of town. Unknown …” he claimed via his Instagram Stories.
Edmonds’ rep later elaborated on his client’s cryptic message in a statement to Page Six, claiming that King had hired a nanny for the weekend as she was headed to a retreat instead of having Edmonds watch them.
“Jim thinks it’s really sad the kids are being left with a nanny instead of their father, who changed his Super Bowl plans so he could be with them. Hopefully, Meghan enjoys her narcissism retreat,” his rep said in a statement to Page Six.
After King released her initial response, a fan reached out to her via her DMs offering the former reality star some support and condolences for having to go through the custody drama in the public’s eye. King answered the message and revealed she was glad it was out in the open so she could be a voice for women who are going through a similar situation.
“I want everyone to understand this. So many others don’t have a voice and I can only effect change by speaking out and using this platform,” she wrote alongside a screenshot of the supportive message. “I want my children to be proud of their mother for not taking this sitting down. Well behaved women rarely make history and I plan to be on the right side of it.”
King’s former costar Braunwyn Windham-Burke seemingly shaded Edmonds with a response of her own. The TV personality, 45, shared she would also be away from her kids this weekend for “those of you keeping track” and listed an exact number of days she planned to be gone.
“I know upholding the patriarchy and mom shaming is a full time job for many of you, and I just wanted to help y’all out.” she quipped. “Have a great weekend!”
Windham-Burke wed Sean Burke in 2000 and later split after two decades together. The pair share seven children: Bella, Rowan, Jacob, twins Caden and Curren, Koa and Hazel. In December 2020, the Bravo personality revealed she was a lesbian.
The Missouri native and the retired baseball player, meanwhile, tied the knot in 2014 and joined the cast of the Bravo series shortly after their nuptials. The pair struggled to conceive and went through IVF to have their daughter, Aspen, who was born in November 2016. King later welcomed twin sons, Hayes and Hart, in June 2018.
One year after welcoming their newborns, King accused her husband of infidelity — which Edmonds denied. In October 2019, Us Weekly confirmed that the California native filed for divorce just one day after the pair’s fifth wedding anniversary. The twosome’s split turned nasty as they had a custody battle over their children.
In June 2022, King filed for a temporary restraining order alleging that the former athlete exhibited “frequent and consistent verbal abuse” toward her virtually and on their court-monitored coparenting app, Our Family Wizard. Three months later, the order of protection was dropped.
Edmonds, for his part, addressed the allegations in September 2022. “This request for an order of protection is completely baseless and furthermore makes an absolute mockery of the pain suffered by the millions of women in this country who are legitimate victims of abuse,” Edmonds’ rep, Steve Honig, told Us Weekly in a statement at the time.