Kelly Rutherford refuses to send kids back from US

Kelly Rutherford has straight out refused to send her kids back to Monaco, taking her custody battle into her own hands.

While as per court orders, the 46-year-old American actress was supposed to fly hee children back to husband Daniel Giersch, she announced that she doesn't plan to do so, People magazine reported.

In a statement, the Gossip Girl star said that she had been waiting for her kids, who were forced to leave the US in 2012 when they were aged just two and five, for the past three years to come home, and it had been hard.

She continued that while a California judge had granted her sole custody in May for which she was immensely grateful, since after that the court proceedings "have been confusing," referring to her case heard in California and New York where both ruled they did not have jurisdiction over son Hermes, 8, and daughter Helena, 6, in the past two weeks.

Rutherford said that "no jurisdiction" meant that no state in this country was protecting her kids at present which also meant no state in this country required her to send them away, which is why she would lawfully not send them away.

"The Monaco court treated me with respect when I appeared there earlier this year to file a formal objection to their jurisdiction," Rutherford adds. "I believe Monaco appreciates why it cannot assert jurisdiction over my children, and that Monaco will respect my children's right to reside in their own country."

She said that she hopes her decision would bring the painful litigation to an end, and that her children would be allowed to live in peace in their own country, adding that Giersch could exercise his parental rights in this country, just as she had done for the past three years in France and Monaco on my U.S. passport.

Rutherford had divorced the German businessman divorce in 2009, when she was three months pregnant with Helena, and since 2012, she has nearly flown back and forth to Monaco over 70 times to see her children.