Ioan Gruffudd’s income plummeted from $585,000 a year to $125,000 a year as a result of his embittered ex-wife Alice Evans’ ‘malicious and slanderous’ harassment and abuse against him, the Fantastic Four star’s lawyer told a Los Angeles court Wednesday.
Evans, 57, set out to ‘ruin’ her former husband’s acting career with her ‘five-year campaign of false narratives,’ said attorney Joseph Langlois.
‘And she succeeded…..Ioan and his new wife Bianca (Wallace) have been ’emotionally and economically devastated by Alice’s callous and repeated violations’ of a restraining order that was imposed to stop her from posting false and derogatory comments about them on social media.
Langlois was making his closing argument at a bitter trial in which Gruffudd, 52, is asking Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Convey to end the spousal support he currently has to pay Evans, firstly because of her abuse and second because he claims he’s already ‘overpaid her by almost $400,000
Evans meanwhile is asking the judge to force Gruffudd to increase the $1,500 he’s paying her monthly in spousal support. He’s already paying an agreed $3,570 a month in child support for their two daughters, Ella, now 16 and Elsie, 12.
In March, during the first phase of the trial, Judge Convey slapped Evans with a five-year restraining order over her barrage of negative online posts about Gruffudd, and his second wife, Australian actress Wallace, 33.
On Wednesday, Langlois told the court that in the three years before Gruffudd and Evans split in early 2021, he was earning an average of $585,000 a year ‘as an A-list actor in high demand.’
But in the four years since their breakup ‘his income dropped to an average of $125,000 a year….He is struggling every single month. He had to borrow money to pay for daily necessities.’
Gruffudd is seen here arriving at Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday
Evans, seen here smiling as she arrived at courrt, is asking the judge to force Gruffudd to increase the $1,500 he’s paying her monthly in spousal support. He’s already paying an agreed $3,570 a month in child support for their two daughters
In March Judge Convey slapped Evans with a five-year restraining order over her barrage of negative online posts about Gruffudd, and his second wife Bianca Wallace
Langlois said the drop in Gruffudd’s fortunes was a result of damage to his reputation caused by Evans ‘20,000[ social media posts’ over five years, about he and Wallace, many of them ‘horrendously negative,’ some of them falsely accusing him of being a ‘deadbeat dad, a child abuser, a pedophile.’
Her barrage of abusive social media posts ‘were calculated to damage, if not destroy, his public image and his career as an actor,’ he added.
Langlois argued that Gruffudd’s spousal support payments to Evans should be terminated because, if he continued pay his abuser, that would a victim financing his own abuse.’
Talking of the ’emotional scars’ Evans’ abuse has left, Langlois said that Gruffudd has spent many years, starting as a child actor, building a respected track record in his profession.
‘Once that reputation is ruined, it’s practically impossible to recover,’ said the attorney. ‘Justice demands the termination of spousal support.’
He told the court that Evans would spend four hours a day on social media, ‘claiming she was a victim when she was the perpetrator of abuse. She was feeding the monster of abuse that she created.
‘There were threats of violence against Ioan and Bianca from the followers who drank Alice’s concoction of abuse.’
Langlois said that while Evans had ‘shed a few tears’ of regret over her campaign of abuse against Gruffudd and Wallace, ‘There has been no real remorse.’
Evans and Gruffudd are pictured here with their two daughters Ella and Elsie in 2018
Gruffudd with new wife Bianca Wallace, whom he met while filming the TV series Harrow in Australia while he was still married
Do public celebrity disputes help uncover the truth – or just make painful break-ups even worse?
Citing provisions in the former couple’s original pre-marital agreement, Langlois maintained that Gruffudd ‘overpaid’ Evans to the tune of $359,000 in the three years after their split.
‘Alice lived rent-free in their former home and he paid all her expenses for two years.’
The lawyer told the court that Evans was making no effort’ to contribute to her own support by not looking for acting work or jobs in other fields, ‘even though she’s multi-talented and fluent in three or four languages.’
And he accused her of filing inaccurate and ‘materially lacking’ statements of her income and expenses to the court.
Gruffudd left his wife of 14 years in 2021 and is now married to aspiring actress Bianca Wallace, whom he met while filming the TV series Harrow in Australia while he was still married.
The couple welcomed their baby daughter in November of last year.
Countering Gruffudd’s claimed drop in earnings, Evans’ attorney Janina Verano told the court: ‘There has not been a single piece of evidence to show that Ioan’s reduction in income was related to Alice’s conduct.’
She vehemently opposed Gruffudd’s bid to stop paying his ex, saying, ‘The facts of this case do not warrant draconian termination of spousal support.’
And she argued that the judge’s ruling to continue the restraining order against Evans should not be used against her when determining whethe spousal support should continue.
‘That is not the law,’ she said. ‘A criminal conviction for abuse or for a violent domestic felony can be used to end spousal support. That is not the case here – there is no criminal conviction against Alice’
‘The facts in this case are that Alice posted on the internet and sent messages to Ioan – but that was years ago now.’
Verano argued that far from owing Gruffudd $359,000 in support payments he claims he overpaid her, it is he who owes her $162,900.
She accused Gruffudd of ‘manipulating the evidence so it will result in the least amount of money for Alice.
And she asked Judge Convey to order Gruffudd to increase her monthly spousal support from $1,500 a month to $1,862 per month under a provision from the former couple’s pre-marital agreement.
As for claims by Gruffudd’s attorney that Evans is not making an effort to find work and support herself, Verano said, ‘That is not supported by evidence.’
Verano pointed out that Alice has been working, making about $42,000 a year making guest appearances and attending conventions where she poses for photos and mingles with fans of TV shows she’s been in like The Vampire Diaries.
While that doesn’t include all her living costs, she said, ‘It’s what Alice can do with 100 per cent custody of the children.’
Evans hasn’t worked in TV or films in 10 years and lately acting jobs in Los Angeles have been difficult to come by added Verano. ‘She’s 57 years old. It’s not like she can go into black into the work force at her age.’
