Entertainment
Una Healy and Ben Foden’s kids blocked from travelling to US to see their father
Una’s children had planned to spend the summer with their father (Picture: Instagram)
Una Healy and Ben Foden’s children were blocked from flying to America to visit their father due to Covid restrictions.
Ben, 35, is living in the United States with his new wife Jackie, and is unable to leave the country while he awaits the processing and authorisation of his Green Card.
Because of this, his wife Jackie, 36, flew to Ireland to pick up his children Aoife, nine, and Tadhg, six, to bring them back to the States to see their dad for the summer.
However, immigration officials reportedly refused to let the children travel.
Current rules surrounding entry into the US from the UK and Republic of Ireland amid the Covid-19 crisis reject children of non-citizens from travelling to the States, unless in special circumstances.
The rules currently allow some exceptions, including ‘certain family members of US citizens or lawful permanent residents including spouses, minor children, parents, and siblings’.
Jackie praised Una and Ben for calming the children down (Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
However, Ben, who shares a 14-month-old daughter Farrah with Jackie, is not yet considered a permanent resident.
Jackie fumed over the situation on her Instagram stories and said Aoife and Tadhg were ‘devastated’.
Explaining why her ‘two stepbabies’ were not spending their summer in New York, she wrote: ‘I currently just spent the past month organising their trips over to the US – getting tickets booked, hours on the phone with Aer Lingus making sure their stepmother can bring them over, booking their ESTAs, etc, Ben can’t travel because he’s getting his Green Card processed and can’t leave the country.
‘I take the red eye to Dublin last night, when I checked in at JFK, the attendants checked on the kids’ return flights, everyone was made aware of my plans to turn right back around with stepkids, flights were all normal.
‘I pick them up in Dublin today, only to have their tickets blocked by immigration. An hour at check in trying to get them through, and then another 1-2 hours and stuck in immigration offices, only to be told that c**k face President Biden, probably in his attempt to appear more strict on Covid policies than Trump, that there is a ban on EU citizens and there’s nothing possible we can do, other than fly to Turkey or Mexico, quarantine for 14 days and then bring them over from there.
Ben lives in New York with wife Jackie and their daughter Farrah (Picture: Instagram)
‘Having to break these poor babies’ hearts, who had their hopes up for a fun summer with their dad and sister, we’re all not okay right now. Una was a rockstar with them, they were on the phone with their dad, both Una and he calmed them down. I’m very much not okay and am a complete mess.’
Jackie added that they will now likely spend the summer in England and Ireland when Ben’s rugby season ends and he can apply for emergency travel.
She proceeded to further hit out at President Biden, and said that America is ‘moving on’ from the pandemic.
Aoife and Tadhg live with their mother, The Saturdays star Una, in Dublin, while Ben moved to New York in 2019 when he signed for Rugby United New York in Major League Rugby.
More: Ben Foden
It was then he met Jackie during the summer of 2019, and married her after two weeks of dating on a yacht in Nantucket, Massachusetts – on the same day his divorce from Una came through.
They went on to welcome a daughter, Farrah.
Ben and Una, 29, got married in June 2012, but split in 2019 amid allegations Ben had cheated.
The rugby star later said: ‘I hold my hands up and say, it was wrong.
‘We’re people who respect each other and we’ll always love each other because we have kids.’
