Christina Ricci Granted Protective Order After Domestic Violence Incident With Husband

Christina Ricci has been granted an emergency protective order against her husband, James Heerdegen, after police were called to her home on June 25 for a domestic violence incident. The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a call to the actress’ Woodland Hills, California, home for a “domestic battery radio call,” according to Us Weekly, but no arrests were made. Ricci was, however, granted the emergency order prohibiting any contact with her husband.

Ricci and Heerdegen, who share 5-year-old son Freddie, met on the set of Pan Am in 2011 and began dating the following year. The two tied the knot in May 2013, with Ricci telling Us Weekly at the time of wedding planning, “It’s more overwhelming than I thought it would be. The rumors are true: wedding planning is overwhelming.” She was looking forward to motherhood at the time, however, telling the magazine, “I can’t wait to have our own little world replete with small beings!”

In a June 2019 interview with IndieWire, Ricci said she was looking inwards at the next stage of her life as an actress and mother after weathering the ups and downs of child stardom herself. “Just recently have I actually started thinking, ‘What do I really want to contribute? Who am I? What means something to me?’” she told the publication. “I deserve to do work that I feel good about. I want to contribute to the world, I don’t want to just take from it. I want to do things that I’m proud of instead of being exploited, as I feel I was when I was a child. I am now more in charge of myself and doing things because I understand more fully what life is supposed to be about.”

She added in a 2017 interview with The Guardian that she’s relished the process of getting older after spending her younger years in the spotlight. “I thought I would do better as I got older,” she admitted at the time. “In my 20s, I wasn’t really considered a romantic lead, but I was also not character-actressy enough. It was a weird position. I was so young-looking. They still don’t like to cast me in anything where I have to be a professional. They’re like, ‘It’s not believable.’ I’ve been waiting to get older so I could get parts.” In the end, Ricci said she feels “incredibly blessed” to have the career she has. “But it’s not something I would choose for anybody else. I wouldn’t let my son do anything public until he’s an adult.”