Breaking down. Meghan King burst into tears amid her ongoing visitation drama with ex-husband Jim Edmonds.
“Nobody really talks about coercive control and the after effects of divorce,” King, 38, said as she wiped away tears in a Wednesday, February 15, Instagram Story video. “People say, ‘It’ll get better in time. It’ll get better with time.’ It’s been three years.”
Coercive control is described as “an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim,” according to the U.K.’s Women’s Aid website.
The former Real Housewives of Orange County star asked on Wednesday: “’When? What time do I have to wait for?’ The lawyers told me that. My parents and coordinator, everyone told me that. It’s worse.”
King’s message came two days after she revealed that she “finally found the love of my lifetime: my own self-love,” during a recent trip to Sedona, Arizona.
“I opened a new chapter this past weekend, one where I solidified my footprint in the entrepreneurial arena as well as the love department. I am in love …. After trauma (that still continues), after divorce,” the former reality star wrote via Instagram on Monday, February 13, referring to her time at the Gaia Haven Wellness retreat. “After everything I’m still standing … IN SEDONA in the center of a vortex. No one tells me I can’t do something. I have balls, I have grit, and I will keep on keeping on. Sending up a million prayers of gratitude because words are failing me.”
The “Intimate Knowledge” podcast cohost’s positive social media post came after she and Edmonds, 52, engaged in an Instagram exchange in early February regarding their alleged coparenting issues.
The former MLB player, who shares daughter Aspen, 6, and twin sons Hart and Hayes, 4, with King, insinuated at the time that his ex-wife was keeping him from their little ones when she chose to have a nanny watch them during her trip to Arizona and not leave the kids with their father.
“Sad when your ex tells the kids, you don’t want to see them when you’re busy then doesn’t let you see them when you’re out of town. Unknown …” Edmonds — who split from King in October 2019 amid infidelity rumors — claimed via his Instagram Stories.
The retired professional athlete, who married Kortnie O’Conner in September 2022, later elaborated on his struggles with King via his rep. (Edmonds and King finalized their divorce in May 2021.)
“Jim thinks it’s really sad the kids are being left with a nanny instead of their father, who changed his Super Bowl plans so he could be with them,” Edmonds’ rep said in a statement to Page Six on February 9. “Hopefully, Meghan enjoys her narcissism retreat.”
King fired back at the accusations via her Instagram Story on Friday, February 10. “I’m sick of verbal and emotional abuse not being classified as ‘abuse,’” she wrote. “The courts don’t help protect me, my country club doesn’t protect me, the police don’t enforce, lawyers don’t want to deal with this, so I’m taking matters into my own hands.”
She later responded to a fan’s supportive social media message, writing, “I want everyone to understand this. So many others don’t have a voice and I can only effect change by speaking out and using this platform,” she wrote alongside a screenshot of the supportive message. “I want my children to be proud of their mother for not taking this sitting down. Well behaved women rarely make history and I plan to be on the right side of it.”
