The nastiest divorce in Hollywood just got personal – actor Ioan Gruffudd is going to represent himself in court in his divorce from actress Alice Evans.
On October 2, Ioan filed a ‘substitution of attorney’ notice at the Superior Court of LA which makes it clear he will be representing himself.
This means he may get to quiz his wife Bianca Gruffudd, ex-wife Evans and other witnesses on the stand. Bianca, 33, and Ioan, 52, claim that 57-year-old Evans continues to harass them, which Evans denies.
In August, Ioan’s well-respected lawyer Matt Russakow filed a motion to be ‘relieved as counsel.’ He gave as the reason an ‘irreconcilable breakdown of the attorney-client relationship.’
Russakow had been representing Ioan over his bid to extend a DVRO (Domestic Violence Restraining Order). Ioan had a three-year order made against Evans in August 2022 after he told a court that she sent him hundreds of text messages and tweets, including one which ran: ‘Some vixen has your nuts between her veneers.’
That order said Evans had to stay away from Ioan and Bianca and banned her from speaking about them, including in interviews or on social media. He now wants to extend it indefinitely, and says in a court filing that she has continued to harass him with thousands of social media messages – which she denies.
Actor Ioan Gruffudd (pictured right exiting court in Los Angeles in July 2025 with wife Bianca, left) is going to represent himself in court in his divorce from actress Alice Evans
Ioan had a three-year order made against Evans in August 2022 after he told a court that she sent him hundreds of text messages and tweets
That order said Evans (pictured right with Ioan, left, in 2011) had to stay away from Ioan and Bianca and banned her from speaking about them, including in interviews or on social media
Russakow quit after Ioan made public in a court filing a series of text messages from his own daughters Ella and Elsie accusing Ioan of not helping them when they were being evicted from their home due to unpaid rent. Ioan contends in the court paper that the messages were written by his ex-wife. She denies this.
In one his daughter Ella, 15, apparently wrote: ‘You left us and now you can’t provide for us.
‘You need to get a job daddy. Looking after your girlfriend is not a job. You are a father who has abandoned his children and doesn’t see them or talk to them. You don’t even send Christmas presents. It’s pathetic and everyone sees you.
‘PS if there is enough money for us never to become homeless then why aren’t you helping us out? You hate mummy more than you love us.’
There will be a mediation settlement conference in December and possibly a full week in court next year if the pair cannot reach an agreement on child and spousal support and whether the restraining order gets scrapped or extended.
Ioan’s attorney in the financial side of the divorce is still in place. The ‘Fantastic Four’ and ‘Hornblower’ actor attended court last month with new wife Bianca, who is pregnant.
He and Bianca, an aspiring actress, appear to have met in 2020 when she was an extra on his TV drama ‘Harrow.’ He left Evans in January 2021 and he and Bianca went public with their romance in October that year.
Bianca strongly denies that they were together romantically when he was still married.
Ioan and Evans met on the set of ‘102 Dalmatians,’ which was released in 2000, and have been legally divorced for two years.
Both sides are pleading poverty, with Evans saying it is simply not possible to make ends meet on the existing payments from Ioan, which comprise $3,000 (£2,250) per month in child support and $1,500 (£1,125) a month in spousal support.
In a written statement to court, backed by documentation, she says she owes money to utility companies, and defaulted on the $6,500 (£4,800) a month rent at their previous apartment in Beverly Hills, which led to her eviction. She also claims in the paper that she owes her lawyer $35,000 (£26,000).
Ioan and Bianca, an aspiring actress, appear to have met in 2020 when she was an extra on his TV drama ‘Harrow.’ (Pictured: Ioan and Bianca in July 2025)
Ioan and Evans (pictured in 2015) met on the set of ‘102 Dalmatians,’ which was released in 2000, and have been legally divorced for two years
This summer she and her daughters moved out to a modest property in suburban Encino in the San Fernando Valley.
Ioan is meanwhile seeking to reduce the payments and says that it isn’t possible to find more or better paid work.
In a legal filing last year, Evans wrote of her regrets at the behavior that led to the restraining order in the summer of 2022, and said she had not contacted him in years.
She wrote: ‘I understand why the Court issued the DVRO (restraining order), and I wish I had never sent the messages or published the social media posts.
‘I was acting out of emotional anguish caused by the unexpected end of our marriage and Ioan’s rather quick public announcement of a new romantic relationship on social media, which our eldest daughter discovered via an Instagram post.’
But when asked in a legal form how many times he believed the order has been breached by his ex since it was filed, Ioan indicated: ‘Approximately 5,000 times.’
That would amount to an average of 138 times a month – or four times a day. Evans denies that this is the case. Ioan believes his ex-wife has been harassing him mostly through anonymous Twitter accounts, but also claims in a legal filing she has physically stalked him.
She hit back in a court paper: ‘There is absolutely no evidence of stalking… I have no idea where he and his wife live, nor do I have any interest in stalking them. This is plainly ridiculous.’
She also denies Ioan’s contention that she has made herself homeless in order to make him look bad, which she says is simply absurd.
There was an ugly incident in 2023 during a custody visit when Ella, now 15, first met her father’s new girlfriend.
She said that she hadn’t wanted to meet Bianca, and Ioan said in court documents that Ella had reacted furiously to Bianca’s presence and vandalized the apartment.
The teen applied for a restraining order against her father, which was not granted.
