Jesse Williams Files to Change Custody Agreement with Ex-Wife

Jesse Williams‘ custody battle with ex-wife Aryn Drake-Lee is starting up again.

The Grey’s Anatomy alum, 43, filed a request to change his custody agreement with ex-wife Aryn Drake-Lee on Tuesday, Sept. 10, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE. Per the filing, Williams wants to alter visitation of the former couple’s daughter Sadie, 10, and son Maceo, 9, asking to have his kids at his house Wednesday to Friday and Monday to Wednesday at Drake-Lee’s, with weekends split evenly.

In the request for order, Williams claims that their current schedule is “unnecessarily challenging for our children and causes unnecessary interactions between me and Aryn.”

“There is no question that spending more time with me is in the children’s best interests,” Williams claims in the documents. “The children benefit from the love and stability I provide them, and they continually ask to spend more time with me. I am actively engaged in Sadie’s and Maceo’s lives.”

Elsewhere in the documents, Williams alleges that Drake-Lee has a “bizarre obsession” with excluding him from their kids’ afterschool activities, claiming that he’s been advocating for a good co-parenting relationship.

He alleges that there was “good cause” for Sadie and Maceo to “spend less time” with their mom, claiming that she has obstructed and interfered with his time.

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Williams claims his ex-wife blocks his FaceTime calls and prevents him from attending their kids’ various activities, as well as manipulates their vacation schedules to prevent time with their dad.

“I have never refused Aryn access to the children. I constantly try to exemplify normal, healthy coparenting behavior in the hope that she will see it works better than chaos and conflict,” the actor claims in the documents. “Aryn’s conduct is the opposite — designed to frustrate my custody and impair my relationship with the children, and she has no concern of the impact her conduct has on our children.”

Williams goes on to note that an equal co-parenting approach would “strengthen” his bond with their kids so they’d have the “opportunity to grow up emotionally healthy.”

“Allowing the children to spend at the very least, equal time with me will not only further strengthen our loving bond, it is one of several ways the court can stop the pattern of rewarding Aryn’s toxic, obstructive behavior,” Williams claims. He continues, alleging that his ex-wife “has made it her mission since I filed for divorce to weaponize access to the children, demonstrating her personal vendetta is more important than the best interests of our children.”

Williams initially filed for divorce from Drake-Lee in April 2017 and since then, the two have gone back and forth in court over custody.

At the beginning of their custody battle, Williams sought joint custody while Drake-Lee asked for sole custody due to the actor’s work schedule.

In June 2018, Williams was ordered to pay more than $50,000 per month in child support in addition to the $50,695 per month in spousal support that he had paid Drake-Lee since January of that year. Months later, the actor filed an appeal to fight the order, claiming he was paying too much.

By October 2020, Williams and Drake-Lee had finalized their divorce, with documents obtained by PEOPLE at the time showing that the exes would share joint legal and physical custody of their two children. Williams was also ordered to pay his ex-wife $40,000 in child support every month, as well as over $100,000 in two spousal support payments.

A few months later, in April 2021 the former couple was ordered by a judge to attend a “high conflict parents” program as they worked to improve their co-parenting relationship.

Nearly a year later, in March, Williams and Drake-Lee settled their child custody dispute, which stated they would continue to share legal custody of their two kids. The judge also recommended that the exes seek co-parenting counseling, as “both seek a great deal of fine-tuning in their custody and visitation orders, much of which a court is not as well equipped to handle.”

Williams’ monthly child support payments were “temporarily” lowered a month later, in April — a modification that came following his May 2021 departure from Grey’s Anatomy. He went from paying his ex-wife $40,000 in child support each month to $6,413.

The two again began battling over custody when Williams temporarily moved to New York City to perform on Broadway. At the time, Williams alleged that Drake-Lee was not allowing their kids to visit him on court-approved days, filing legal documents to request custodial visits with his children.

Williams was granted visitation with his kids, with the court awarding that their two kids can visit the actor in N.Y.C. on specific days in October, November and December.

At the time, the court also ordered 10 sessions of co-parenting counseling for Williams and Drake-Lee. The order also stated that “each party is restrained from making derogatory remarks about the other party, either directly or indirectly to the minor children, nor allow any third party to do so.”