Ioan Gruffudd and girlfriend Bianca Wallace at a park in Los Angeles on July 5, 2023.Photo:MEGA
MEGA
Ioan GruffuddandAlice Evansare legally divorced.
“The Court finds irreconcilable differences have arisen in the marriage and grants judgment for the dissolution of marriage as to status only, effective today,” reads the document, dated July 3, 2023.
The news comes as Gruffudd, 49, was photographed on Wednesday with girlfriendBianca Wallace, as the two stepped out for a visit to a Los Angeles park.
The sunglass-clad couple were later snapped lounging atop their blanket on a hilly section of the park they visited.
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Ioan Gruffudd; Alice Evans.Christopher Polk/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images; Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
Gruffudd and Evans, 54, met in the 2000 set of102 Dalmatiansandwere married in 2007. The actorfiled for divorcein March 2021. The former couple share two daughters:Ella, 13, andElsie, 9.
In the years since their split, the former couple have been involved in a contentious legal back-and-forth about subjectssuch as child custodyand domestic-violence claims.
In his petition, Gruffudd claimed he had told Evans he was “unhappy” in their relationship in August 2020. The actor said Evans “repeatedly told me between August 2020 and our separation on January 1, 2021 that if I left her, she would make false public accusations about me, sell false stories about me to the press, and destroy me and my career.”
David Livingston/Getty; VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty
The actress had previously pleaded not guilty to two charges of violating the restraining order, which barred her from posting remarks about Gruffudd or his girlfriend Wallace on social media. (It is unclear what alleged restraining-order violation prompted the charges against Evans.)
At a follow-up hearing in March, Commissioner James Cooper deferred ruling on Evans' attorney’s ask for the court to rule Evans “factually innocent” of the charges until a hearing future hearing, theDaily Mailreported at the time.
On March 10, the outlet reported that prosecutorschose to drop the charges against Evansafter they told Cooper during a hearing at Los Angeles' Airport Courthouse that they were “unable to proceed” with the charges.
“I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who has been so supportive of me over the past few days, few weeks, few months, few years, since 2019, actually,” Evans said in a video sheshared to Instagramon March 12, in apparent reference to the dropped charges. “I’ve tried to read everything and I know that [at] the moment I’m not on social media and I can’t really come back to you personally, but I promise I will and you will never be forgotten.”
“Things are going well. Me and the girls are good, and I just wanted to send so much love and gratitude,” Evans finished in the video as she blew a kiss to the camera.
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
More recently, the former spouses' older daughter said she fears abuse from her father’s girlfriend in a restraining order she filed against actress Wallace.
The teen claimed, in part, that she was left with “bruises” following the May 26 incident, which she alleged happened when she tried to leave her dad’s home after getting into an explosive argument with him and Wallace.
Ella said she threw “raw oatmeal” at her dad, poured mustard on the floor and threw milk on his bed after discovering Wallace was staying at her father’s home while she was also there on an “overnight” with her sister. Ella said she had never met Wallace before that day and had previously told her dad that she didn’t want to meet her.
Ioan Gruffudd and Bianca Wallace attend the SMS Battles Quiz for The MS Society at East Wintergarden on May 12, 2022, in London.David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
“I was able to walk halfway out the door, but while I was still in the door frame, [she] slammed the door on me, causing the door to hit me on the head as well as my arm. My arm got bruised, and I had a small bump on my head,” she stated in the documents.
Ella said she ran from the apartment with her sister and their dad caught up to them. She then called her nanny, who was able to arrange for her sister’s friend’s father to pick them up. The friend’s father drove the sisters to Evans’ house and Gruffudd followed behind.
The filing included photos of bruises on Ella’s arm and hand, which sheclaimed were a result of the alleged incident.
In the documents, Ella said that when her mother saw the bruise on her arm the following day, she called the Beverly Hills Police Department, who referred her to the West Hollywood precinct, as that’s where the alleged incident had taken place.
Gruffudd and Wallace did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
