Court bans NRL couple from waging war through the media in bitter divorce case

A court has taken the extraordinary step of banning a warring NRL couple of sledging each other via the media, in a bid to protect their children.

An NRL star and his wife, embroiled in a bitter divorce, have been banned from attacking each other in the media, to protect their children.

Since their split, the pair have made tit-for-tat allegations against each other.

But the Family Court of Australia has banned each of them, or family members, from providing negative information about their ex, or the ­acrimonious split, to the media.

The court also banned the pair from publishing derogatory comments about each other on social media, websites or other platforms. Neither party can be named because of Family Court laws.

The court’s decision was based on protecting the interest of the couple’s children, who are still at a formative age.

According to a recently published judgment, the children were at risk of being psychologically damaged by the ­public fallout, when they should have been “shielded”.

An independent children’s lawyer told the court that the parents’ public war could make the children “more vulnerable to emotional distress and problems with their mental health”.

Earlier this year, the couple came to an agreement over their split, which included shared parental responsibility of the children.

But the husband then applied to the court to permanently ban the wife and her family from providing negative information about him to the media or from publishing it on social media or other platforms.

The mother asked the court to dismiss the husband’s ­application.

The husband claimed the wife leaked damaging information and then had her lawyers write to his legal team claiming the coverage brought into question whether their children were safe in his care.

“This conduct seems inexplicable when viewed through the lens of its impact or potential impact on the parties’ children,” Justice Suzanne Christie told the court.

The court heard the mother wanted to “take the power back” from her ex, whom she accused of subjecting her to coercive control, financial abuse and verbal abuse.

The court also heard the woman believed her actions would help her children because it set an example that she stood up against her husband.

She told the court her children would have “a more whole understanding of a really complex and traumatic and horrific time that we went through.”

But a child expert said the couple should have “shielded” their children instead of potentially setting them up for psychological damage including a diminished “capacity to trust” or ability “to form relationships in the future”.

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