Armie Hammer wants to force his estranged wife & two kids to come back to LA

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I don’t know if this will turn out to be a bigger story in the weeks and months to come, but it definitely feels like there’s a good chance it will. In July, Armie Hammer and Elizabeth Chambers announced that they were separating after a decade of marriage. They had apparently been having problems for a while, and the pandemic heightened all of it. They were in lockdown in the Cayman Islands for months and that’s when their marriage became irretrievably broken. Armie flew back to LA in July while Elizabeth stayed on the island with the kids. She’s been posting on Instagram about the kids going to school on the island. And now Armie is trying to force Elizabeth and the kids to come back to LA?

Armie Hammer is filing for joint custody of his two children whom he shares with his estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers. The Call Me By Your Name star is requesting Chambers, 38, return to the U.S. to arrange a custody schedule for their daughter Harper Grace, 5, and son Ford Douglas Armand, 3. Chambers is currently staying in the Cayman Islands with their kids where she and Hammer quarantined at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Hammer, 34, returned to Los Angeles after the two announced their separation in July.

“As the coronavirus pandemic worsened in the United States, Elizabeth and Armie elected to stay with their children temporarily in the Cayman Islands where the pandemic appeared to be under greater control,” the actor’s lawyers state in legal documents according to The Blast. “Armie returned to Los Angeles this past July, with a promise from Elizabeth that she and the children would follow shortly thereafter. To date, however, Elizabeth and the children remain in the Cayman Islands and Armie has not seen the children in several months now.”

A rep for Chambers could not be reached for comment. She previously filed for divorce in July, seeking primary physical custody and joint legal custody of their two children.

A source tells PEOPLE, “These are crazy times with COVID-19, shutting schools down in L.A. and Elizabeth just wants the kids to have a normal experience.”

Harper and Ford have enrolled at the same school Hammer attended when he was younger. (The actor’s family moved to the Cayman Islands when he was 7 where they lived for five years.) “The kids are able to attend school, play with their friends and lead a fairly normal life in the Cayman Islands. If they were in L.A., they would be stuck in front of a computer,” adds the source.

In the filing, Hammer said, “When I asked Elizabeth when she was coming home, however, she first told me that the airports were closed. Then I was informed through her attorneys that flights were merely limited but that she and our children would be back in Los Angeles on the first flight in October.” He continued, “It is now several weeks into October and they have not returned.”

While living in the British territory with their mother, the children have also been spending time with the actor’s father, Michael Armand Hammer, per Chambers’ Instagram Stories.

[From People]

While I do think this could become a major thing, I also sort of understand why Elizabeth is doing what she’s doing? I mean… the kids probably are better off in the Cayman Islands at this very moment. She’s clearly still spending time with the Hammer side of the family, and it’s not like she’s kidnapped the kids and taken them to parts unknown. She’s staying in lockdown, and she doesn’t want to travel with two small kids in the middle of a pandemic. But yeah, I can also see why Armie is trying to force her to come back, I guess. Messy!

Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.

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42 Responses to “Armie Hammer wants to force his estranged wife & two kids to come back to LA”

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  1. Christina says:

    I used to like them both, don’t ask me why. I can definitely see both sides. The island is Covid-free and everyone roams freely maskless and well, free. That must be very nice. But I do have a feeling she’s trying to keep the kids from their father, maybe as a way to punish him or have better control of the situation.

    • Ferdinand says:

      I’m with you on this one, @Christina. For whatever reason, I believe she is the one trying to keep the kids from Armie as a way to show she’s got the power in this situation.

      She’s probably using them al leverage for getting a hefty piece of the cake in the divorce.

      I also believe Armie doesn’t like being with family that much because of their political beliefs which I think Elizabeth also partakes, so maybe that’s why he doesn’t want to go back to the islands. There’s no reason for him not to go back. He had appearances in late shows this week, but other than that, he can still promote “Rebecca” from anywhere since all press is done via zoom.

    • Mrs.Krabapple says:

      To me the question is where is the children’s usual place o residence? One parent cannot unilaterally decide to move the kids out of their place of residence (especially to a different country). If they were in Cayman islands on vacation, the mother has no right to keep the kid there permanently. If they had relocated to Cayman isles and now father wants to move away, he cannot demand the kids go with him. I don’t know any details, but I suspect the kids’ usual place of residence is LA so without knowing more, I think he has the right to demand the kids be returned.

      • Lea says:

        I have been following them both for a long while and while Armie was gone most of the time, she and the kids would split their time between Texas (where she has her bakery) and California.
        I think this divorce will be a mess. It really feels like the Hammer family is siding with Chambers.

      • Venus says:

        I think Armie is the messy one; she’s the responsible one. Yes, she doesn’t protect her kids’ privacy and they’re all over her IG but she’s not the one parading with Josh Lucas’s ex and one of the Moore-Willis daughters and calling the paps. From the kids’ schooling perspective, staying in the Caymans and being able to go to school physically is better than virtual schooling.

  2. Lia says:

    Why can’t he go to them? Much easier for him to fly down than have 3 people fly over.

    • Cava24 says:

      He probably has female companionship lined up in LA. And there’s a decent chance he won’t be willing to do half the lockdown parenting safely in LA and he just wants his kids around while someone else does the work.

    • Angel says:

      I was thinking the same thing. He sounds selfish.

  3. Chimes@Midnight says:

    I can kind of see both sides. On the one hand, the kids are settled and in a routine down there. But, on the other, they were on a vacation, it was never supposed to be a permanent move.

    At the end of day though, like, f!$k, just do whats best for the kids. Especially when money is no issue.

  4. Lori says:

    This makes him seem petty. He didnt have to leave the island at this point even with them split up.

    • Valiantly Varnished says:

      Exactly

    • Kristen says:

      He said on multiple occasions during lockdown that he wanted to leave the island because he was bored. This move of requesting her to bring the kids back to the states has nothing to do with what’s actually best for the kids at this point.

  5. Skyblue121 says:

    As I gear up for another workday as a home health/hospice nurse with an office facing a shortage of PPE and living in a state with a ballooning covid19 infection rate, all I see when I read this article is wealthy people who are fortunate enough to have the resources to check out of our current crisis. And I f@&*ing wish I were one of them. I’d dearly love to retreat somewhere warm, with floofy drinks and endless sandy beaches.

    • Kitt says:

      My mom worked in hospice for years, and having lost several family members, I cannot thank you enough for the work you do. It is so, so hard, even under the best of circumstances. I hope you do get a beach retreat with floofy drinks, as soon as you possibly can. You deserve it. Thank you for all you do. Please stay safe and take care of yourself.

  6. Jess says:

    Umm, I’m gonna side with her on this one. If the kids are able to experience more of a normal life there and go to school why not let them stay?! Plus they get to see HIS family. Maybe she’s being a little petty but maybe not, it makes sense to me for them to stay! Maybe she thought covid would be more under control by now when she promised to return.

    • Sojaschnitzel says:

      I agree with this. I’d go with what’s best for the kids and clearly LA is not a good option for them right now.

    • Valiantly Varnished says:

      @Jess exactly. It sounds like she was waiting to see what would happen and made her decision bases on where the LA and the US was as far as our numbers. If I has a home somewhere where the virus was contained y had kids I would stay there too. This makes me question HIM. Not her

  7. Sarah says:

    I’d absolutely stay in the Caymans for now, it sound great and safe. I can appreciate his frustration but can’t he visit them? Especially if his family is there too.

  8. Sojaschnitzel says:

    I don’t care about either of them, but what a shitty parent one has to be to try to force his children back into a high risk area. The childrens safety should be the most important factor for him. Clearly it’s not.

  9. Thaisajs says:

    I get he wants to see his kids. But man, if I could have my 7-year-old in school and playing with friends on a beautiful island instead of sitting in front of a laptop all day, I’d do it in a hot second.

  10. Hope Rutten says:

    I remember reading that he left the island to come back to the US to work – he started doing construction as he had no other option if he wanted to earn money. I can’t fault him for that if he is actually supporting his family.

    I don’t really care for him, but if they had an agreement and she keeps faulting, I can see how he would be upset. Maybe it’s more a lack of communication between the two and he reached this point to try and come up with a plan that allows him to see his kids? I guess time will tell. It’s not exactly safe in the US so forcing them to come here doesn’t seem like the best idea.

    • AMA1977 says:

      He’s a millionaire. With family money to boot. He didn’t “have to” do construction work in LA to put food on the table (his estranged wife is wealthy with family money, too, nobody is starving if he doesn’t resort to construction work!) He chose to return to LA and evidently thought it would be fun to play-act at being a construction worker with his buddy who owns the company.

      I agree with all above, if the kids are happy, safe, and in school in the COVID-free Caymans, he should travel to them if he wants to see them. The gift of not having to worry about your kids’ health is worth the tiny bit of inconvenience for him not having them down the street. These are strange times, everyone needs to be flexible. It’s not about what either of them wants, it’s about what the kids need and what is the best situation for them.

      • Hope says:

        I guess I don’t fault people for working when they are willing/able to do so. Maybe they made poor financial decisions or overextended themselves (Johnny Depp comes to mind) – we don’t know the nitty gritty of their financial situation. Or maybe he doesn’t want to rely on his parents (or hers) just because they have money and he’s not currently working in Hollywood. Many people in the entertainment industry are having to figure out if they can/want to stay in the business. I can’t shade someone for giving another potential career option a shot.

        If his estranged wife says “we’ll be on the first flight in October” and then it’s been two weeks and you don’t hear anything, to me that’s not good co-parenting. I can see being very concerned over the rising cases in the US – it’s a valid reason to not want to travel here. But that communication needs to happen and you’d think her lawyers would be telling him that as well instead of “there are no flights, oops there are flights but very limited”. Don’t keep saying “I’ll bring them this date” and then just not show up.

        Based upon what’s been released so far, I blame both of them in that area. He could quarantine and travel to see the kids and she could be honest and say listen, it’s not safe for them to travel but how about we find a way for you to be with while keeping everyone’s health in mind.

        It sounds like they might be a messy couple who really needs to learn how to co-parent for the sake of their children.

      • Hmm says:

        LoL @ the idea that Armie Hammer has to work for $ to take care of his family. 😂😂😂😂😂

        He’s a selfish man who wants to be in la for the women he can tie up and spank.

  11. Ari says:

    Sorry, I have zero sympathy for Chambers since she keeps trying to play up the “so much love for the parents who do it alone” card while literally keeping his kids from him.

    Using the island as an excuse is not it, chief. Let your ex see his kids. With safety precautions, it’ll be totally fine and she’s said in the past that he’s an excellent father. Dating does not negate that, and when she promised to come back to LA and then refused, that’s a douchey move. He 100% deserves joint custody. It’s not selfish, it’s just right. Plus he’s been dealing with depression/anxiety and has been open about his struggles. She’s making it worse.

    • Mee says:

      @ARI what!! Kids stay in Covid free Cayman. He can fly there, no one is ‘keeping’ him from his kids, no one’s keeping him from being a ‘good father’. And boohoo he’s suffering from anxiety and depression, no one else is right now??? Oh and he’s also a millionaire not like the rest of us looking for 12am cheap flights.

    • BB8 Squirrel says:

      I definitely agree with you regarding Elizabeth. I think there’s always an ulterior motive there for her. Chambers is REALLY playing up the single parent trope on social media and always talking about how hard it is to do “alone”. (As if her experience as a single parent is even half of what a lower class/middle class working single parent is…) If she stated that she would be coming home right away in October then they’re clearly in a power struggle and she’s trying to leverage this.

      That being said…. if I were in her shoes I would stay and say that he’s welcome to come visit anytime given the circumstances??? Why you would openly leave or say you’re going to leave a covid-free island where the kids have begun school in person safely, they have friends, his family is there, they are SAFE…. going to LA makes zero sense right now.

  12. Turtledove says:

    I can see both sides to an extent. If she said she was coming back, then didn’t, then said on October 1, and STILL didn’t, I can see why he would be upset. He may not have felt the need to consider going down there as she said she was coming back.

    But didn’t he cheat on her with Lily James? So I get that even if your ex is a cheating d-bag, you have to look past that and work with them to co-parent well, for the kids sake. But I can 100% see her feeling like “well, I have no desire to go back to LA and be around that cheating douche, and this island is giving my kids a very safe. yet normal life, and he can certainly come down here if he wants to see them. ” I honestly don’t think it is terrible of her. The one aspect that I would side eye the hardest is the part where she perhaps hasn’t simply TOLD HIM THAT. If she was stringing him along with “yeah, yeah, we’ll be home soon..” that is not cool. But insisting on staying where she is, where it is better for her and her kids? To me, that sounds like she is doing ok by the kids and simply refusing to be the one who is inconvenienced. And it IS a lot easier for him, as a grown man, to fly down to the islands safely. it looked it up, it is a 7 hour flight. That is MUCH easier for a single adult to do, than one adult with 2 little kids.

  13. Lo says:

    I think he is lying full stop. I follow her on Instagram and she has been very transparent that Covid is minimal on the island and she enrolled the kids in school. He left her, left the family during a pandemic. She’s staying with HIS PARENTS.

    So I’m supposed to believe that she’s an evil petty soon to be ex wife who is keeping his kids from him ….. while she has family dinner with his Dad every night? Sorry no.

    • Venus says:

      Yep, she’s not very likeable but the facts are facts: she seems to be in the right here. Armie seems to be a very messy guy.

  14. Grant says:

    Family law attorney here. Armie likely isn’t trying to force Elizabeth to come back to LA necessarily; rather, LA was probably the children’s last permanent residence, thus the venue with jurisdiction to preside over the child-related matters in the divorce suit. Any litigation would take place in LA. It’s perfectly reasonable for Armie to want some kind of roadmap in the form of an enforceable court order that speaks to possession and access of the children, particularly in these times of uncertainty. That being said, I think that it’s highly unlikely that an LA court is going to force the children to return to LA in the middle of a school year, given that they are settled into a routine on the island. I bet a judge will want Armie to exercise his periods of possession in the Cayman Islands and then they will make a decision regarding the children’s primary residence during the upcoming winter or summer break. I doubt that Elizabeth is going to want the kids’ primary residence to be in the Cayman Islands anyway because she’s eventually going to want to come back to LA or Austin herself.

    • tcbc says:

      Um, I think Armie wants them back in LA because people have been calling him a deadbeat and he’s starting to do press for a new movie and doesn’t want to be asked about that. If he cared about his kids, he never would have left the Cayman Islands, as all he’s done back in the States is hook up with Insta-thots.

  15. Tanya says:

    How do you just stay on a foreign island indefinitely? Do they pay taxes there? Don’t they need a visa after 6 months?

  16. Valiantly Varnished says:

    He comes off like an a$$hole in this filing. Which he is. But if seeing his kids was so important why can’t HE fly to the. Cayman Islands? Clearly he feels safe traveling since he did so to go back to LA. Why would you want to take your kids out of an environment where they are safe and can have a normal day to day life, compared to what they would have in LA? This reads as selfish to me

  17. holly hobby says:

    The kids are cute. That’s all I got.

  18. Queen Meghan's Hand says:

    This mudderrucker left his children to go have sex with younger versions of Chambers and now wants to force her to bring them into a country with an out-of-control COVID outbreak. MEN!

  19. SJ Knows says:

    This guy..phooey to him.
    If I could get myself and my kids anyplace right now that Covid is even going down in new cases I would.
    Grow up. The kids are safe, in school, his parents are in the picture…for the time being he can travel to see them.
    Oh yeah, this is certain to get messy. He strikes me as an asshat. Never liked him, can’t say I’d pay $$ to see any movie he is in either.
    All the hoopla about him being so handsome? Yeah, no. I am in Minnesota and his bland, tall, white guy with good teeth and hair are all over the place, even hometown boys Josh Dumell and Josh Hartnettare better looking in my book.

  20. Bread and Circuses says:

    Well, Team Armie in this case.

    It’s one thing if she is keeping the kids somewhere safe for their own protection, but if she’s been telling Armie she’ll bring the kids back to LA soon and then not doing so, then that’s not what she’s doing.

  21. LadySwampwitchivsneaufux says:

    He’s a selfish a##. Those children would be endangered as would his ex getting on a plane right now. Also Covid rates are high here and rising. Why does he want them to come back to that? He should go to them if he misses them so much. Ridiculous , selfish.