Inside Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas’s incendiary divorce gossips say began with something seen or heard on a Ring video doorbell as they thrash out a custody deal
Evenings in the beer garden at the Fleur de Lys pub in Lowsonford are idyllic. Drinkers gaze out over the Stratford Canal, looking at houseboats while the sun dips below the Warwickshire hills.
For Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas — she internationally famous thanks to her role in Game Of Thrones; he for his chart success with the Jonas Brothers — a level of anonymity which comes with rural life must have been an added attraction.
The couple came in several times earlier this summer, minus their two young children, to enjoy drinks together. They received barely a second glance from the local crowd. ‘It was good weather and they sat outside together,’ said a staff member last week.
‘There were no scenes, no signs of trouble.’
As late as July 21, the couple were seen in another inn — The Saxon Mill gastro pub nearby — this time with their children, her parents and more extended family. Again, everything appeared well.
Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas have agreed to live in New York and share custody while Turner’s filing there is determined
Jonas reportedly had heard or seen something via a Ring doorbell camera which convinced him the marriage was over
The idyll is truly over now, of course. Turner’s brother told the Mail last week that the looming divorce between the couple was ‘stressful’, especially for her parents Andrew and Sally
The Turner-Jonas marriage was always a union between two very different people (Pictured: The pair in March)
Actress Sophie Turner leaving marriage mediation session on Wednesday
Joe Jonas arrives at the lawyers’ offices in Lower Manhattan dressed in a blue jacket, white jeans and black loafers
The idyll is truly over now, of course. Turner’s brother told the Mail last week that the looming divorce between the couple was ‘stressful’, especially for her parents Andrew and Sally.
The couple are slugging it out in three separate court actions being conducted both in the U.S. and UK, Sophie and the children are stuck by order of a court in New York, at least temporarily.
Wednesday was the start of four days of mediation at a lawyer’s offices in New York. If they cannot reach an agreement then there will be a trial at the Federal Court in Manhattan in January.
Appearing via Zoom at a court hearing on Tuesday, Sophie looked cheerful. It was confirmed that their two daughters are living with her — at her friend Taylor Swift’s apartment. Her estranged husband was represented by his lawyers.
And no wonder Sophie was smiling, for if the tumultuous events of the past three weeks come with a lesson, it is this: don’t mess with Sophie Turner. She has a warrior sensibility in common with Sansa Stark, the Queen of the North, the character she played in Game Of Thrones.
The couple are slugging it out in three separate court actions being conducted both in the U.S. and UK
The British actress, 27, and American pop star, 34, arrived separately at the offices of Wilmer Hale in New York’s Financial District
For while first blood in the marital skirmish went to Jonas, who filed for divorce on September 1, apparently without his wife’s knowledge, the pursuit of proceedings so far shows she is proving an implacable foe with a steady nerve.
Invoking the Hague Convention on international child abduction, she has retaliated by accusing Jonas in a court filing of refusing to hand over the girls’ passports so they could return to England with her, and demanded the ‘immediate return of children wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained’.
Turner’s lawyers say she wishes to settle in the UK with her children, a course previously approved by her husband. He argues they belong with him in Florida, where he used to own a house. Her side have embarrassed him by adding a copy of a letter he wrote into court — in it he talks about how ardently he longs to live in the house which they have exchanged contracts on in Oxfordshire.
A further PR win has been having Taylor Swift by Turner’s side. Not only is Swift a global megastar and the Queen of Heartbreak, she also happens to be one of Jonas’s ex-girlfriends. Jonas famously dumped Swift in a 25-second phone call in 2008. Revenge is being served ice-cold.
The Turner-Jonas marriage was always a union between two very different people.
He is 34 years old, the son of an ordained minister from Arizona, a couple of inches shorter than his wife. Like her, he was famous from his teens.
She is a willowy country girl from a wealthy middle class family — her father is a successful businessman, her mother a teacher who gave up her job in order to chaperone her daughter while she acted in Game Of Thrones.
In an interview, Turner said she started acting at the age of three at the Playbox Theatre in Warwick. ‘I grew up in Warwickshire in a tiny little village. It was really nice, a country upbringing. We had a paddock out the back where horses used to graze and we had three little barns, one for each of us children,’ she said.
Her drama school teacher encouraged her to try out for the series, Game Of Thrones, a blockbuster based on the books of George R.R. Martin.
‘I didn’t even tell my mum about the first auditions, but by the final audition in London, I said to myself: ‘I’ll die if I don’t get this part. I just know Sansa too well. I can’t not get it.’ ‘
Sophie and her attorney lawyer are seen arriving at the law offices in New York City
Jonas and his minder enter the offices of Wilmer Hale in New York’s Financial District
For the first three years, her mother came with her on set as a chaperone. She was 14 when the series started and 22 when it finished.
She met Jonas through mutual friends when she was 23, and they were married in short order. First came a small wedding in Las Vegas followed by a bigger bash at the Hotel du Cap in France. It seemed a fairy tale.
Daughter Willa was born in California in July 2020 followed by Delphine in 2022, in Miami, Florida. Turner barely worked, aside from a role in the 2022 series The Staircase.
In April this year, their house in Miami was put up for sale and the couple and their children moved to the UK.
As revealed in court documents this week, they rented an old farmhouse near Lowsonford, close to Henley-in-Arden. They had previously spent Christmas there and had such a wonderful time that they decided to return.
Sophie is picked up from Taylor Swift’s NYC apartment and driven to the legal offices for divorce talks
Over the weekend Turner and Taylor Swift (left) were seen leaving Italian restaurant Emilio’s Ballato in Soho after having dinner together
Sophie grew up nearby, just outside Royal Leamington Spa, and is close to her parents who still live in the area in a large detached house.
Turner says their daughters Willa and Delphine were registered with a local GP, and Willa attended nursery school nearby — something confirmed by one of the mothers there.
A parent, with a connection to the nursery, said: ‘They were here for the summer term with their little girls. I know they rented a place out at Lowsonford.
Everyone was talking about how famous they were but then we were told, at the end of the school year, that they would not be back in September.’
That is because the couple spent the summer house-hunting, eventually settling on a £7.5 million Grade II-listed property in Oxfordshire, which they intended to buy as their forever home.
The plan — before Jonas’s divorce filing — was to move in come December.
In the spring, Turner started filming on the ITV drama Joan, about a jewel thief.
In August, the children went to the U.S. where Jonas is touring so they could spend time with him in the day. The plan was — says Turner — that they would be reunited with her the following month as her filming schedule allowed.
According to an account given by Turner, the couple had an argument on August 15, Jonas’s birthday — presumably over the phone. ‘The breakdown of the parties’ marriage happened very suddenly,’ her lawyers say.
He filed for divorce in Florida on September 1. Her side say the first they knew of it was via reports in the media on September 5.
A joint public statement talked about a ‘united’ decision to ‘amicably end’ the marriage. However, a narrative was emerging via gossip websites which blamed Turner for the split. It was said her ‘partying’ was behind the fissure, that she felt she had missed out on the experiences of being a young and carefree woman.
It was also said, by gossip website TMZ, that Jonas had heard or seen something via a Ring doorbell camera which convinced him the marriage was over. It’s now being reported that Jonas heard her ‘disparaging’ him on it. ‘It wasn’t anything more than that, but that was the final straw,’ said a source.
The divorce filing in Florida says the children had lived there for six months before, and seeks to enforce a prenuptial agreement made by them both.
Three weeks later, Turner hit back with a bombshell legal filing, invoking the Hague Convention on international child abduction, at a court in New York.
A representative for Jonas certainly seemed shaken by the legally aggressive move.
Last week, he said: ‘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 children were not abducted.
Last week, the two agreed to an interim consent order to keep the kids in New York after Sophie demanded Joe return them to the UK (Pictured: The Jonas Brothers perform in Las Vegas last month)
‘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.’
As for the PR war, Jonas’s representative also said the singer had ‘already disavowed any and all statements purportedly made on his behalf that were disparaging of Sophie’.
‘They were made without his approval and are not consistent with his views. His wish is that Sophie reconsider her harsh legal position and move forward in a more constructive and private manner.’ Since then, there has been a hearing in Florida, at which the judge said he would deal with the divorce — aside from custody — in Miami in December.
Turner and Jonas meanwhile have agreed to live in New York and share custody while Turner’s filing there is determined. Jonas’s lawyers say Turner has also filed for divorce in the UK via her UK law firm, Harbottle and Lewis.
Michelle M. Gervais, a partner at Blank Rome LLP, who does not represent either side, this week characterised Turner’s strategy so far to the Mail as ‘very smart’ and said that it put her in mind of the anti-hero of the TV series The Wire: ‘When you come at the king [or in this case the queen], you best not miss.’
She added: ‘Ms. Turner’s filing under the Hague in NY Federal court was a great legal move and one that has a lot more merit than Mr Jonas filing for divorce in Florida. A kidnapping case is governed by treaties between the United States and contracting parties like the UK and will be watched closely by both the U.S. State Department and the UK.
‘If Ms Turner is successful, a court in the UK will thereafter decide custody. Ms Turner’s filing should immediately stay Mr. Jonas’s divorce proceeding in Florida.’
Gervais added that she believes Turner has an ‘excellent chance’ of getting the children returned to the UK, and the divorce being settled here subsequently.
In legal documents, Turner talks about England as a ‘safe location’ to raise her family and says that: ‘the parties’ shared plan was to purchase the property together and raise their children together in the beautiful home and English country surroundings. Both parties were excited about the move for their family.’
It looks as if that dream is still in reach — even though now it will be just the three of them.
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