Former “Real Housewives of Orange County” star Meghan King has temporarily lost custody of her three children to ex husband and retired MLB player Jim Edmonds after a Child Protective Services investigation, with Edmonds now holding sole physical custody and King restricted to supervised visits.
According to multiple outlets including People and TMZ, the shift came after a school employee contacted CPS with concerns about King, triggering a probe that unfolded over the past few months and ultimately led a court to change the previous joint custody arrangement.
In the middle of all this are King and Edmonds’ three children, daughter Aspen, 8, and twin sons Hart and Hayes, 7. They had been living under a joint custody deal that was finalized in 2021 after their divorce.
One report from Just Jared described a school worker’s call to CPS as the moment that stripped King of physical custody in recent months, with the reality star now allowed to see the kids only when visits are supervised.
The custody shift in plain terms
Right now, Edmonds has sole physical custody of all three children, while King’s time with them must be monitored, a serious step that family courts generally reserve for cases where officials believe closer oversight is needed during visits.
Court officials are expected to revisit the arrangement in early December, when a hearing will decide whether this setup stays temporary or becomes the new normal for the family, and coverage from Us Weekly and SoapCentral suggest that nothing is guaranteed for either parent yet.
A family divided
Backstory on this couple goes back more than a decade, long before the latest headlines. Their relationship, breakup and co-parenting struggles have played out in public, from Bravo cameras to social media posts and court filings.
Page Six noted that King, 41, and Edmonds, 55, married in 2014, split in 2019 amid a cheating scandal and finalized their divorce in May 2021, at which point they reached a joint custody agreement that was supposed to give both parents regular time with the kids.
Multiple sources including People and Just Jared have pointed out that the new order is a dramatic reversal from that 50 50 plan, raising fresh questions about what CPS saw and heard during its investigation that convinced a judge to limit King’s access for now.
The tension between the former couple hasn’t exactly cooled since the divorce papers were signed, and this latest custody decision is landing on top of years of public disputes between the exes.
Earlier this year, police were called to Edmonds’ Missouri home after a contentious exchange involving King and Edmonds’ current wife, Kortnie, an incident captured in bodycam footage Us Weekly obtained, with King claiming emotional abuse and Kortnie at one point seeking charges before backing off.
A representative for Edmonds, speaking to People in earlier coverage, criticized King’s behavior, insisted that he is focused on the children’s best interests and accused her of refusing to co-parent in a consistent and cooperative way.
Reports from Reality Blurb and other outlets also detailed Kortnie obtaining a restraining order against King this summer, adding yet another legal layer around a family that already shares a long, messy history.
Stories like this land differently when you consider the children. I grew up in an era when family drama usually stayed behind closed doors, and I cannot shake the feeling that these kids are living a very different kind of childhood, with every setback quickly turned into content for the rest of us to consume.