It's starting to look like the amicable co-parenting situation between Ant Anstead and Christina Hall isn't so amicable after all.
Fans of the former couple were shocked to learn that Ant filed an emergency order for full custody of their 2-year-old son, Hudson. Ant filed the order after a series of issues he detailed in the paperwork, from the amount of time she spends with Hudson to how she cares for the boy's health and safety. Christina publicly commented shortly after the filing news went public, expressing her disappointment and desire to handle things publicly.
A judge didn't agree with the urgency of the situation, however. He denied Ant's emergency custody filing but laid out steps for how the custody battle will move forward.
An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled against granting Ant emergency full custody of 2-year-old Hudson. The judge explained that Ant had an "insufficient showing" of concerns around Hudson. He also did not give Christina enough notice of his intentions.
Christina and Ant were granted joint physical and legal custody of Hudson at the time of their divorce in July 2021. Each has an additional two children. Christina shares custody of 6-year-old Brayden and 11-year-old Taylor with ex-husband Tarek El Moussa. Ant's children, 15-year-old Archie and 18-year-old Amelie, live in the United Kingdom.
The judge set a hearing for June 28 to allow both parties to appear. There, they will make their arguments for and against the proposed custody change. In the meantime, they will adhere to the existing arrangement.
Christina said that the move "deeply saddens me," in a statement on April 28 addressing the filing.
"If this was really about Hudson, as he says, this should have been handled privately with a private judge or mediation, as myself and my attorney have suggested," she noted in her statement.
Ant, for his part, claims that Christina was negligent and allowed her 2-year-old to get a bad sunburn. When Ant showed her the sunburn, she brushed it off and told him to treat it with Tylenol. A screenshot of a text between the two shared by TMZ shows Ant addressing the burn with her. Photos from Ant's Instagram on the same day, April 9, show Ant at the beach with Hudson, wearing the same shirt he was wearing in the photo from the screenshot.
Ant says that Christina has spent an average of only nine days a month with Hudson in the last 20 months and when she has, she's overshared their time together on social media. He also wants to put an end to Hudson appearing in any sponsored content on her accounts.
Ant also says that he feels Christina is irresponsible because she publicly admitted to smoking toad venom in a psychedelic experience. This was during a trip with husband Joshua Hall and not while her children were in her custody. He also cites an instance when she returned Hudson to him and didn't inform Ant that her whole household had tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, Ant's partner, Renée Zellweger, also contracted the illness and was forced to pause production on a film project.
Interestingly enough, Ant has been spotted spending time with Christina's other co-parent. Earlier this month, he was seen out and about with Tarek and wife Heather Rae Young. While Tarek and Christina do co-parent together relatively well, there's been a lot of talk about how the two do not get along as individuals outside of that arrangement.
No party involved has formally commented on the judge's ruling. The evening prior, Christina did post a cryptic poem about how men respond to women's strength. She then captioned it with a Jill Blakeway quote that reads, "when a toxic person can no longer control you, they will try to control how others see you. The misinformation will feel unfair, but you stay above it, trusting that other people will eventually see the truth just like you did."
