Kaplan said Cartwright had not sought to reduce Taylor’s parenting time during the previous year. He described her latest concerns as “fabricated emergencies” and claimed she filed quickly despite knowing, through communications between the lawyers, that court proceedings were already coming.
Those are arguments from Taylor’s legal team, not findings by the court. The temporary orders also do not settle the underlying allegations. Family court, inconveniently for everyone involved, still requires evidence.
How could the orders affect their custody agreement?
Taylor and Cartwright filed a parenting plan in March that gives them joint legal custody. Under that arrangement, Taylor cares for Cruz every other weekend and on Wednesday nights. Cartwright has the deciding vote when the parents cannot agree about medical treatment.
The agreement includes several other conditions:
- Neither parent may be under the influence while caring for Cruz.
- Each must wait six months before introducing Cruz to a romantic partner.
- Neither parent pays child support.
Reciprocal stay-away orders could make routine handovers, scheduling discussions and medical decisions harder to manage. The available reports do not explain whether the court has established an intermediary or another system for exchanges while the temporary restrictions remain active.
The September 24 hearing could therefore affect more than the restraining-order claims. It may also determine how the existing schedule can function when both parents have received temporary protection from the other. A detailed calendar is useful, but it cannot negotiate a 100-yard boundary by itself.
What has Cartwright alleged against Taylor?
According to court papers reported by Us Weekly, Cartwright accused Taylor of nearly a decade of coercive control, financial abuse, emotional and psychological mistreatment and physical violence. Her allegations include a claim that he threatened to “gut” her.
Taylor disputes those accusations. E! News reported that he characterized the conflict as “co-parenting friction” rather than abuse.
His lawyer has also tied Cartwright’s legal action to Taylor’s sobriety. Kaplan told TMZ that Taylor has passed every drug test since leaving rehabilitation and alleged that Cartwright hopes sustained pressure will cause him to relapse.
“She wants to ‘beat him down’” and prompt him to “stray from his maintained sobriety,” Kaplan said, adding that “that is a goal for which she will not succeed.”
Taylor has said he has remained sober for nearly two years, attends therapy weekly and voluntarily takes random drug tests. The March parenting agreement separately prohibits either parent from being intoxicated while responsible for Cruz.
Cartwright and her representatives had not answered Kaplan’s relapse allegation publicly. No material development in the case was reported between September 2 and September 3.
Why are television contracts part of the case?
Taylor claims Cartwright contacted employers and business partners in ways that damaged his income. He alleged that her actions cost him a $175,000 appearance on Fox’s Special Forces and affected a $5,000-per-month holding agreement connected to The Valley. E! News corroborated that those were the opportunities identified in the dispute.
His restraining-order application asked the court to prevent Cartwright from interfering with future deals. Taylor also accused her of calling him “asshole,” “loser” and “dirty dick.” The insults are less financially measurable, though certainly not difficult to interpret.
The employment claims add an unusual commercial layer to an already complicated family dispute. Reality television depends on turning private conflict into public programming, but employers tend to become more cautious when that conflict arrives in sworn court filings.
For now, neither side has secured everything requested. Cartwright retains the existing shared-custody framework after her emergency sole-custody bid was denied, while both parents have temporary protection of some kind. The September hearing will give the court its next opportunity to decide which restrictions, if any, should continue and how the parents are expected to manage Cruz’s schedule alongside them.
