Jennifer Hudson Reportedly Retains Primary Custody of Her Son

In court yesterday, Jennifer Hudson dropped the protective order she had requested against David Otunga, the father of her son. After a ten-year-long engagement, the couple has had a messy break-up. PEOPLE is reporting that despite this partial reconciliation, Hudson will remain the primary caregiver for David Jr., and retain primary custody for now.

Hudson requested a protective order against Otunga less than two weeks ago, claiming she feared for her safety and the safety of their child. At the time, Hudson testified that Otunga had pushed her, physically intimidated her, and even “taunted” her with a gun.

“He has a history of physical and emotional abuse,” said Hudson’s filing for the protective order, “and I am afraid that his physical attacks will continue to escalate, especially due to the contentious nature of our parentage proceedings.”

In addition, Hudson claimed that she had reason to fear Otunga would take their son without her knowledge if the protective order wasn’t in place. She pointed to a case where Otunga had checked their son out of school without telling her, reasoning that he might do so again to remove David Jr. from her custody.

Hudson also said that her ex’s emotional abuse was taking a toll on their child. She said that David Jr. was in tears one night in the recording studio with her, fearful of what his father’s reaction would do. She claimed that Otunga had gone so far as to instruct David Jr. to record his mother secretly on his iPad and send the videos to his father, so that he could keep tabs on the two of them when he wasn’t around.

Despite all of her earlier testimony, Hudson relaxed the terms of the order of protection, allowing David Jr. to spend Thanksgiving with his father. Yesterday, she dropped the order altogether, though Otunga is still never allowed in her house again. A source close to Hudson said she gave up the protective order so that she and Otunga could “remove the matter from the courtroom and work together to do what is best for their child.”

According to PEOPLE, Hudson will retain custody of David Jr. at least until their next court date on December 7th. Otunga is requesting full custody, claiming that he’s been David Jr.’s primary caregiver for his whole life, since Hudson travels so much for work.