Jesse James Cleared to Move to Austin with Daughter
James' custody battle win against Lindemulder puts him closer to Sandra Bullock.
July 21, 2010— -- Jesse James is free to move to Austin, Texas, with his daughter Sunny.
After a bitter custody battle with Sunny's mother, porn star Janine Lindemulder,, that dragged on for months, James was awarded physical custody of their eight-year-old daughter on Tuesday, clearing the way for him to move to Austin, where he recently bought a home. The move will bring him closer to ex-wife Sandra Bullock, who has also has a home in Austin and helped raise Sunny in the past.
Lindemulder, who won custody of Sunny over the summer, did not take the ruling lightly. "I'll move, I'll move!" she screamed after the judge made the ruling, according to TMZ.
Although the judge gave both parents joint legal custody, James was given physical custody. After the hearing in Orange County, Calif., Lindemulder told TMZ that she could not compete with James and Bullock the "nice things they provide."
Though the judge allowed her to have physical custody of Sunny until school starts in Texas, Lindemulder told TMZ she may let her daughter move there early. "Someday I will be her mother again," she said.
Lindemulder has been fighting to regain custody of Sunny ever since she gave it up to serve six months in prison for tax evasion. The star of more than 100 porn films told "Good Morning America" last November that her life was back on track.
But James, with the help of then-wife Bullock, fought to keep Sunny, saying Lindemulder's new husband, also a convicted felon, was unfit and accusing Lindemulder of leaving the child alone while she was "asleep from drug use."
With the custody battle behind him, nothing is stopping James from moving to Texas, where some believe he is making a play to win back Bullock.