LOS ANGELES — Ambyr Childers, who was married to filmmaker Randall Emmett for eight years, is seeking a domestic violence restraining order from her ex-husband.
Childers, an actor who most recently appeared on Netflix’s “You,” filed the request Monday in L.A. County Superior Court, citing “legitimate fear for [her] safety and well-being.” On Tuesday, her request for an emergency temporary order was denied by a judge who cited lack of proof, but a hearing to review the matter was set for Nov. 14.
According to her petition, Childers sought the restraining order after discovering “threatening” correspondence between Emmett and his attorney. Childers said in her declaration that she emailed Emmett last Friday to alert him that she had received notice from their elder daughter’s school complaining she was continually late while under Emmett’s care. (She and Emmett share joint legal and physical custody of two daughters, ages 12 and 8.) When Emmett responded, Childers said, his message included copies of emails he had exchanged with his family law attorney, Ben Valencia.
In those emails, Valencia allegedly wrote: “When will you get some real money together so we can take this c— out once and for all. This is not good for your girls.”
Minutes later, the court records say, Emmett responded: “I don’t have real money for this and you know it.”
Childers, Emmett and Valencia did not immediately respond to the Los Angeles Times’ request for comment.
Childers said she had mulled over Valencia’s message since reading it and was most frightened by the “finality and desperation” of his words. “If not the infliction of physical harm on me, would the money be to set me up?” Childers wrote in her declaration. “Is it some sort of bribe for law enforcement? With Randy’s history of illegal and/or intimidating activity, nothing is off the table, and all possible interpretations make me fear for my safety.”
She goes on to claim in the petition that Emmett — a producer-turned-director who has made more than 120 movies — was emotionally and verbally abusive to her during their marriage. Childers wrote in her declaration that Emmett “would put his hand around my neck and tell me that I could never get away from him.”
The couple divorced in December 2017, but in January of that year, she said that she found a tracking device placed under her car. In the court filing, she said that Emmett later “admitted to me that his attorney Ben Valencia had directed him to hire a private investigator who then placed the tracking device on my car.”
In her legal documents, Childers also extensively cites a June L.A. Times investigation that included allegations of inappropriate behavior with women, ties to a LAPD officer and mistreatment of employees. Through his spokeswoman, Sallie Hofmeister, Emmett vehemently denied the unsavory behavior described in the article. But in Monday’s court filing, Childers said Emmett offered to pay her $50,000 to “stand beside him and refute what the article said.” She declined, she said, because she is “just as much a victim as the other victims in the article.”
In the June story, the L.A. Times detailed how Emmett allegedly offered numerous women money in exchange for their silence regarding their sexual relationships with him. Last January, Emmett was sent a settlement agreement by Gloria Allred stipulating he would pay about $200,000 to a Allred’s client, an actor who claimed the producer made her perform sexual favors to receive acting work from him. Hofmeister would not comment on the alleged payment but said Emmett “adamantly denies” the actor’s claims.
Lala Kent, a “Vanderpump Rules” star who was engaged to Emmett from 2018 to 2021, also told the L.A. Times that another of Emmett’s attorneys once offered her $14,000 on her client’s behalf in exchange for keeping her relationship with Emmett a secret. Kent said she did not take the money, and a person close to Emmett said the account was inaccurate.
Kent and Emmett are currently involved in a custody battle over their 1-year-old daughter. On Monday, Childers, 34, asked the court for sole legal custody of her two daughters. She is asking a judge to require that Emmett, 51, stay 100 yards away from her, her home, her workplace and her vehicle and she wants Emmett to attend a 52-week batterer intervention program.
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(Los Angeles Times staff writer Meg James and researcher Cary Schneider contributed to this report.)
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