Kelly Rutherford: “I’ll Raise My Children Alone”

Gossip Girl Kelly Rutherford, who gave birth to her second child, Helena Grace, on June 8, made the tough decision to file for divorce from husband Daniel Giersch when she was just three months pregnant. Kelly, 40, recently spoke to Life & Style about her stressful split, the cold custody battle and her plans to be a single mother.

When Kelly found out that she was pregnant again, she had hopes that a new baby might be just what they needed to save their already faltering marriage. “I found out I was pregnant, and I thought, oh, maybe things will be nice, maybe it will be calm,” says Kelly. “But it wasn’t. Things only got more intense.”

The stresses at home were only exacerbated by troubles with her husband’s job. “He was very litigious. He says he’s an entrepreneur, but I think he just sues people. It was very angry [behavior]. I was kind of scared to leave.”

A close friend of the actress, Suzannah, tells Life & Style: “[Daniel was] cold, controlling and paranoid – he threatened to ruin her career and sabotage her. He gave me the creeps, and he was beginning to get scary. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get away.”

Regardless of issues with her ex-husband, Kelly is thriving as a parent and doesn’t believe that she needs a man to complete the equation: “A lot of great men, presidents even, were raised [only] by their mother under those conditions. The most important thing is that the children have love and stability in their lives, whether that comes from a mother or a father. [Alone], I can raise them to be much more peaceful.”

Kelly and Daniel are also parents to 2-year-old Hermes.