Alice Evans sobs in court as she claims she learned from a lawyer that Fantastic Four’s Ioan Gruffudd wanted divorce

Alice Evans cried in court Thursday as she described learning from a lawyer that her husband, Fantastic Four star Ioan Gruffudd, was divorcing her.

‘I was terrified… I was alone in Los Angeles. The 57-year-old actress sobbed, “I’m extremely shocked… devastated,” and said Gruffudd “never” told her he wanted a divorce.

A second crushing blow came a few months later, she told the Los Angeles Superior Court, when she discovered on Instagram that the man she spent more than 20 years of her life with was romantically involved with a much younger woman, Australian actress Bianca Wallace.

Giving evidence on the fourth day of the hearing in which 52-year-old Gruffudd tried to renew the domestic violence restraining order against him, Evans added, “This was the biggest shock I have ever experienced in my life,” as she wiped her tears with a tissue.

Gruffudd and Evans separated in early 2021 and went through a messy divorce that was finalized in 2023.

Since then, they have been in a bitter fight over money and custody of their daughters Ella, 16, and Elsie, 12.

Gruffudd and Evans separated in early 2021, with a messy divorce finalized in 2023. They have been in a bitter fight ever since over money and custody of their daughter.

Welsh actor Gruffudd accuses his ex of a ‘five-year campaign of unremitting abuse and harassment’ against him and Wallace, 33, whom he married in April last year and who gave birth to his third daughter, Mila, in November.

Gruffudd accused Evans of breaching the ‘stay away’ provision of a three-year restraining order, in force from August 2022, by following her to a parents’ meeting at one of her daughters’ school.

Evans denies the allegations of ongoing harassment and is asking Judge Michael Convey to turn down Gruffudd’s request for a new restraining order against him.

Evans told the court that after the restraining order was implemented, her daughters were ‘afraid I would go to jail’ for breaching the order.

‘I’m the only one they have; They have no other family. Relaying the phone conversation he had with the father of one of his daughters, the actor said, “I’m the only thing they have,” and added, “He said, ‘Your mother will go to jail.’

He also claimed he wasn’t aware Gruffudd would be at the school when he got there.

She denied Gruffudd’s claims that in July 2020 – six months before she split from Evans – she witnessed him trying to give cocaine to their daughter, physically assaulted her and passed out drunk on the floor.

Evans was hoping to reconcile with her estranged husband until her hopes were dashed when Gruffudd allowed him to follow her on Instagram and she saw him begin a relationship with young Australian actress Bianca Wallace.

Evans told the court he was clinging to the hope of reconciliation and did not want his daughters Ella, 16, and Elsie, 12, to grow up in a broken family.

Evans claims he is broke and wants the court to order Gruffudd to increase the $1,500 a month he pays her in spousal support and the $3,000 a month he pays her in child support for his two daughters, who he says are “poisoned and alienated” from him by their mother.

Gruffudd wants to stop paying spousal support altogether due to Evans’ “persistent domestic abuse of him and multiple violations of the (previous) restraining order” and claims he has already “overpaid” Evans by more than $300,000.

Dressed in a plaid jacket over a black blouse and long orange skirt on Thursday, Evans told the court that when Gruffudd, whom she has been with since 2000, left their home in Los Angeles in January 2021, ‘I thought she needed some time to get her head together.

‘I thought we were just taking a break. ‘I just wanted to keep the family together for the sake of the children.’

But a month later, a lawyer called her and told her that Gruffudd had filed for divorce.

Evans said he tried to reach Gruffudd by phone and e-mail, but he did not respond, and said, “I didn’t want a divorce.”

It was then, he admitted, that he began sending angry and frustrated internet posts and emails to Gruffudd. When asked how often she emails herself, she tearfully replied, “Very often.”

Hurt by the news of Gruffudd’s new relationship, Evans began posting derogatory messages about her and Wallace on social media; Posts in which he said he now “very regrets”

‘It was a feeling of panic. My world was falling apart because I couldn’t communicate with him. I felt uncertain because we had talked every day for the 20 years we spent together.

‘I was desperate for us to work things out by talking to each other. I just wanted to talk to my husband… I foolishly thought we could get back together.

Her hopes of a reconciliation with Gruffudd were dashed in October 2021, while Gruffudd was filming a film in the south of France, when she asked if she could follow him on Instagram, to which Gruffudd replied that he ‘accepts me as a friend’.

When she entered Instagram, the first thing she saw was an announcement that Ioan and Bianca Wallace were romantically involved.

Evans, whose feelings were hurt by the news of Gruffudd’s new love, began posting derogatory messages about her and Wallace on social media; These posts were posts that he now ‘regrets’ very much.

Looking at Gruffudd, who was sitting in front of him in court, less than 20 feet away, Evans said: I can now say I’m sorry… I was sharing too much. Now I feel ashamed and humiliated.

‘I am also very sorry and very sorry and I also apologize to Bianca.’

Responding to Wallace’s accusation that Bianca’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis had been ‘omitted’ in a November 2021 post, Evans told the court he thought it was public but was now ‘deeply apologetic’.

Evans did not attend the hearing in August 2022 where Gruffudd and Wallace were given a three-year restraining order for their online trash talk.

“I was so scared to see them together,” he said in court Thursday. ‘I couldn’t go. I stayed at home. ‘It was stupid.’

Regarding Wallace’s accusation in an online post in November 2021 that Evans ‘inferred’ Bianca’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, Alice told the court: ‘I honestly thought it was public information. I feel very bad about this; I am very sorry.’

Asked about Gruffudd’s complaint in court earlier this week that he had sent disturbing emails to his mother, he said: ‘I was a desperate person because my family was falling apart and I didn’t know what to do.

‘I thought she (Gruffudd’s mother) could somehow help us keep our family together. It was so stupid.

‘I feel great shame and embarrassment. I don’t know that person; He lost his mind.”