A Timeline Of Jesse Williams And Aryn Drake-Lee's Custody Battle

Jesse Williams and Aryn Drake-Lee were married for five years after dating for nearly 10. The pair have two children together, and they have spent a lot of the time that has transpired since their initial separation in 2017 arguing about custody arrangements and financial support for their kids. 

Throughout the second half of September 2022, Drake-Lee used Instagram to air out the details of the exes' numerous custody battles. In a post shared on September 17, Drake-Lee offered a timeline of her relationship with Williams that details major events from their time together. Later posts reveal further information that was previously unknown.

Williams and Drake-Lee most recently found themselves back in court in October 2022, when a judge ruled that Williams could have their children visit him in New York while he works and banned the couple from speaking negatively about one another on social media (per Entertainment Tonight). Here is a look at the details of the lengthy custody battle between Aryn Drake-Lee and Jesse Williams.

Despite reports that the pair agreed on their divorce and its terms, Aryn Drake-Lee made an apparent about-face and filed for sole legal custody of their daughter and son in August 2017. Drake-Lee accused her ex-husband of having a work schedule that made seeing his children difficult and that he had a "revolving door" of women in and out of the lives of his kids (via Us Weekly). Drake-Lee added that she was the parent responsible for the bulk of the child care.

In her court filing, Drake-Lee included details that led up to the pair's divorce and claimed, "Jesse became distant, secretive and was home less and less, traveling for unexplained reasons while telling the kids, 'Daddy is at work.' We tried marriage counseling in the fall of 2016, but were unsuccessful. Jesse eventually moved out at the end of March 2017" (per Us Weekly). She took issue with how Jesse Williams defined work and detailed that his work included "trips to Paris, New York, Florida and within California, and activities including giving a graduation speech, attending an awards show, attending a celebrity soccer game in Miami, or doing something undisclosed," according to court documents.

In July 2017, Jesse Williams appeared on Jay-Z's music video for "Footnotes" and seemed to address allegations that he cheated on Aryn Drake-Lee while they were together. Williams made it clear that he did not. He explained, "I was in a relationship 13 years, 13 real years, not five years, not seven years, 13 years, and all of a sudden motherf***ers are writing think-pieces that I somehow threw a 13-year relationship — like the most painful experience I've had in my life, like with a person I've loved with all of my heart — that I threw a person and my family in the trash because a girl I work with is cute" (via Us Weekly).

At the time, Drake-Lee's lawyer, Jill Hersh, admonished Williams for attempting to pull a private matter into the public. Conversely, the attorney told Us Weekly that keeping their children's private issues out of the media was of utmost importance to Drake-Lee.

Jesse Williams and Aryn Drake-Lee finally finalized their divorce several years after the process began. The two reached an agreement in September 2019, and the judge signed off on their divorce in October 2020.

Per Us Weekly, their agreement stipulated that Williams was to pay $40,000 a month in child support and that he was able to keep the nearly $1 million he earned from "Grey's Anatomy" after the couple separated. He was also no longer responsible for spousal support in any capacity, and Drake-Lee was allowed to keep their main home in Los Angeles and two separate homes in New York and Oakland, California. 

The agreement also specified that the parents had to talk to each other before posting pictures of their children on social media. Furthermore, Williams and Drake-Lee were required to take a virtual six-week course for high-conflict co-parents called Between Two Parents, Entertainment Tonight reported.

Jesse Williams and Aryn Drake-Lee settled the custody dispute in March 2022. The result? The two would continue to share custody of both of their children, and Williams would have "tie-breaking authority" when it comes to issues surrounding COVID-19 concerns for their two children. Williams was also allowed to modify the pair's custody agreement to accommodate his time in New York starring in the Broadway play "Take Me Out," according to Entertainment Tonight.

While the judge refused Drake-Lee's request to reduce the time Williams was able to spend with their children, he did agree to a cancellation policy as it pertains to changing the time. The policy stated that if Williams cancels time spent with his children, he will not be able to rescind the cancellation later. The two were also ordered to have a conversation about extracurricular activities that the children engage in, and that Drake-Lee can ultimately make decisions if they cannot agree.

According to court documents obtained by Entertainment Tonight, the judge stated, "Mother should appreciate that father cannot share with her certain schedules as far in advance as she would like, and that he may not always want his time with the children to be filled up with extracurriculars, and father should appreciate that mother is adapting her own schedule to meet his needs, and the children deserve to have extracurricular activities that they engage in on a regular basis, not just when mom is in charge."

Issues between Aryn Drake-Lee and Jesse Williams escalated in June 2022 when Drake-Lee accused Williams and his legal team of bullying her. In a written letter, she explained, "There is a clear history of purposely made false statements coming from both your client, my ex‐husband, as well as from your Law Office and the attorneys involved." She also accused her ex-husband and his team of harassing her and added that she believed Williams was doing so on purpose when things did not go his way (via Entertainment Tonight).

On top of that, Drake-Lee accused Williams of interfering with her efforts to work and of standing in the way of their youngest child getting a new passport. Williams had previously requested that their youngest get his passport, but Drake-Lee insisted that nothing was standing in the way of achieving this other than Williams himself. She went on to add that Williams had not supplied her with the documentation required to obtain the passport until two weeks ahead of their June 2022 dispute.

Aryn Drake-Lee appeared to turn to Instagram to voice her own frustrations about her custody arrangement with her ex-husband. In a series of posts that she shared on her public account, Drake-Lee explained that she doesn't think it is in the best interests of her children to be on flights to see their father across the United States. She repeated many of the statements that she made in her own court filing, and at one point explained, "This was a temporary solution given for a temporary situation the first time. This is now a request that covers 8 out of 12 months of 2022" (via People).

On September 18, 2022, Drake-Lee explained that, from her point of view, the best interests of their children are not being met by the ex-couple's arrangement. As she detailed in an Instagram post: "I have yet to see where their best interests are being honored. I've been working on getting us out of there for years. I have conceded on issues that were wildly inappropriate, because I hoped it could be concluded."

Two days later, Drake-Lee took to Instagram again to voice her belief that her ex-husband is just not there as a parent. As she wrote, "Parenting is an action, not a ratio of time in a court order. I am the parent who manages the majority of the time because I am the one who shows up."