A Florida judge has declared Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner divorced and single, signing off on a confidential agreement reached between the two.
The Miami-Dade County judge approved the agreement on Friday, one year after the 35-year-old Jonas Brothers singer filed to divorce the 28-year-old “Game of Thrones” and “X Men” actor and five years after the two were married.
The split brought a quiet and relatively quick end to a divorce that briefly became acrimonious and looked headed for a long and ugly custody fight.
The documents said that moderated negotiations led to an agreement on splitting assets, spousal support and custody of their two daughters, 4-year-old Willa and 2-year-old Delphine.
Judge Gina Beovides declared that the marriage was “irretrievably broken,” and that the couple's agreement, especially their parenting plan, was in the best interest of the family.
A representative for Turner declined comment. An email seeking comment from a representative for Jonas was not immediately answered.
The couple met through Instagram messages and began dating in 2016. They married in a secretive ceremony at a Las Vegas wedding chapel in May of 2019 after the Billboard Music Awards. Country duo Dan + Shay performed at the wedding.
Jonas filed for divorce in September of 2023. In the filing he sought joint custody and said the two had a pre-nuptial agreement.
The following day the two posted an identical amicable statement to each of their Instagram accounts.
But the split turned into a serious dispute within weeks when Turner sued to force Jonas to turn over the girls' passports so they could join her in her native England.
The daughters, who were born in the U.S. but have dual citizenship, were with Joe Jonas in New York, where he was on tour, according to court documents, in which Turner said they had been planning on raising the girls together in England when their marriage fell apart. Turner said she learned of Jonas' divorce filing through the media, while Jonas said the two had had multiple conversations about it.
The custody fight was dropped in January, a sign that the two were on a path to a settlement.
Turner, who is from Northampton, England, played Sansa Stark for eight seasons on HBO's “Game of Thrones” and played Jean Grey in 2016's “X-Men: Apocalypse” and 2019's “Dark Phoenix.”
The Arizona-born Jonas came to fame with brothers Nick and Kevin in a band starting in 2005 and subsequent Disney Channel series. Last year, they released their sixth studio album and toured U.S. stadiums.
FILE - Joe Jonas, left, and Sophie Turner appear at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 12, 2023, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
GENEVA (AP) — Independent U.N. human rights experts said in a new report Tuesday that their findings show Venezuela's government has intensified the use of “harshest and most violent" tools of repression following the disputed July presidential election.
The official results of the July 28 vote have been widely criticized as undemocratic, opaque and aimed to maintain President Nicolás Maduro in power.
In its report, the fact-finding mission on Venezuela, commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, denounced rights violations including arbitrary detentions, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence by the country's security forces that “taken as a whole, constitute the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds.”
“During the period covered by this report, and especially after the presidential election of July 28, 2024, the state reactivated and intensified the harshest and most violent mechanisms of its repressive apparatus,” said the experts in the report, which covered a one-year period through Aug. 31.
The findings echo concerns from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Human Rights Watch, and others about Venezuela and its democracy, including repression before and after the highly anticipated vote and the subsequent flight into exile of Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo González.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, said he won with 52% of the vote. But opposition supporters collected tally sheets from 80% of the nation's electronic voting machines, and said that indicated González had won the election — with twice as many votes as Maduro.
Global condemnation over the lack of transparency prompted Maduro to ask Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice, whose members are aligned with the ruling party, to audit the results. The high court reaffirmed his victory.
The independent experts, who do not represent the United Nations, decried the government's efforts to crush peaceful opposition to its rule.
The justice system — led by the Supreme Tribunal — “is clearly subordinated” to the interests of Maduro and his close allies and served as a “key instrument in its plan to repress all forms of political and social opposition,” they wrote.
In the hours after Maduro was declared the winner, thousands of people took to the streets across Venezuela. The protests were largely peaceful, but demonstrators also toppled statues of Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, threw rocks at law enforcement officers and buildings, and burned police motorcycles and government propaganda.
Maduro's government responded to the demonstrations with full force, carrying out arbitrary detentions, prosecutions as well as a campaign that encourages people to report relatives, neighbors and other acquaintances who participated in the protests or cast doubt on the results.
The independent experts said they compiled the report through interviews with 383 people and reviews of court case files and other documents while also acknowledging limits to their information-gathering in the post-election period.
The experts said their requests for information from Venezuelan authorities were “ignored” despite appeals for cooperation from the rights council, which is made up of a rotating membership among 47 U.N. member countries.
Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
FILE - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro addresses government loyalists gathered at the presidential palace in support of his reelection one month after the presidential vote, in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
FILE - Protesters clash with police during demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
