Fantastic Four star Ioan Gruffudd's bitter war with ex-wife Alice Evans takes bizarre twist as she accuses him of 'fraternizing' with lawyer who calls her 'Malice'

Fantastic Four star Ioan Gruffudd’s bitter war with his ex-wife Alice Evans has taken a bizarre twist as she has accused him of ‘fraternizing’ with a female lawyer during a recent appearance at a Los Angeles courthouse.

It started when Evans, 56, was temporarily booted from the courtroom September 9 for taking photos inside – apparently of Gruffudd – which is strictly against court rules and could have landed her with a contempt charge.

But Evans insists in new court documents found by DailyMail.com that she wasn’t taking shots of her 50 year-old ex, she was photographing a female lawyer in court named Andrea Burkhart. 

Evans claims Burkhart ‘has been fraternizing' with Gruffudd, 'has said awful things about me’ and ‘refers to me as “Malice’” instead of “Alice” in her Twitter posts.’

‘I turned around and saw her (Burkhart) and Gruffudd engaged in conversation, smiling and laughing,’ she said. ’This concerned me greatly as it appears that Gruffudd is assisting Ms. Burkhart to make disparaging statements about me in her social media.’

In her new court filing, Evans includes a photo of Burkhart outside the LA courthouse and lists several online posts by Burkhart that criticize her and support Gruffudd’s contention that Evans’s claims about being ‘penniless’ and unable to support their two young daughters, are untrue. 

‘Alice just lies about her financial situation,’ Burkhart wrote in an August 2024 post.

‘Malice’s own financial disclosures have been, shall we say, opaque,’ she wrote in a post in July this year.

Burkhart’s following of the messy Gruffudd/Evans split has evidently been going on for a while, since she posted in April 2023, ’She’s (Alice) been found to have committed domestic abuse.’

Still, it’s unclear what her interest or involvement in this celebrity breakup is all about, apart from a YouTube posting that reads, ‘I give commentary and analysis of high-profile cases based on my nearly two decades of experience as a defense attorney…’

In her new filing, Evans vehemently denies Gruffudd’s complaint last week that she’s recently been violating a court restraining order and ‘disturbing his peace’ with continued ‘harassing and abusive’ social media posts about him and his fiancée Bianca Wallace.

‘I have not violated any court orders,’ says Evans.

She does concede that she posted ‘mean’ messages about Gruffudd and Wallace during 2021 and 2022 because ‘I was acting out of emotion after the very sudden end of our marriage.’

But she dismisses her social media posts last week – the ones Gruffudd called ‘disparaging’ – as only ‘general comments about my life, the dissolution proceedings and court proceedings in general. 

 'They were not intended to disturb Gruffudd’s peace.’

She adds, ‘Gruffudd’s complaints show me that he would like to silence me and does not want me to comment about my life experience.

‘Also, Gruffudd’s supporters often comment with rants and are rude to me on social media.’

In her new legal papers, Evans takes issue with Gruffudd’s claim that her recent request for LA Superior Court Judge to issue a protective order regarding her court-ordered deposition is a tactic to delay the case.

‘I am happy to sit for my deposition – I am not trying to dodge my deposition,’ she says, adding that she’s seeking a protective order ‘to ensure that any deposition addressed only the remaining issues in this case and did not unduly invade my privacy….’

Judge Stinn is scheduled to rule at a hearing October 8 on Evans’s request for a protective order.

Gruffudd and Evans were formally divorced in July last year. But they are still battling fiercely over spousal support and custody and financial support for their two daughters Ella, 15, and Elsie, 11.

At the September 9 court hearing, Judge Josh Freeman Stinn signed off on a stipulated agreement in which Gruffudd pays $3,000 a month temporary child support and $1,500 a month temporary spousal support until another hearing February 13 hearing where a more permanent support arrangement will be forged.

Gruffudd is planning to call Wallace as a witness at the February hearing to testify that Evans ‘stalked, harassed and abused’ her, repeatedly violating a three-year domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) which she and Gruffudd took out in August 2022, after enduring a ‘smear campaign’ of hateful text messages, emails and social media posts from her.

Gruffudd claims that Evans ‘engaged in a pattern of damaging and defamatory conduct against me, aimed at intimidating and harassing me and my fiancé, Bianca Wallace, while alienating our two young children from me.’

Gruffudd – whose latest movie, Bad Boys: Ride or Die has grossed more than $403 million worldwide – has fought Evans’ demands for more money, claiming he’s paid some $400,000 more in spousal support that he needed to under their pre-marital agreement.

In earlier court papers, he called her claims of poverty ‘exaggerated’ and said it’s a ‘false narrative' that she and the children have been left destitute.

The former couple met on the set of the movie 102 Dalmatians more than 20 years ago. They fell in love in real life and were married in Mexico in 2007.

Gruffudd filed for divorce in March 2021, shortly after Evans announced on social media that her husband of 14 years was walking out on her and their two daughters.