Credit: ABC News.

Kelly Rutherford broke down in tears on "The View" today talking about her custody battle with her ex-husband, Daniel Giersch, who lives in France and was given custody of their two children, ages 3 and 5, late last month.

"It's just been crazy," she said, wiping away tears. "My little girl said 'I want to come home mama, I want to come back to New York.' My son, who's kind of been brainwashed, says where he is is so much better."

At one point, co-host Whoopi Goldberg ran on set to hand the "Gossip Girl" actress tissues.

"Great service around here," Rutherford joked.

ABC News legal consultant Dan Abrams appeared on the show with Rutherford and called Judge Theresa Beaudet's Aug. 28 custody decision shocking. His commentary about the ruling is headlined " Two American Kids Shipped to France in One of the Worst Custody Decisions. Ever."

Rutherford is consulting with lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a legal adviser in the Elian Gonzalez custody battle, to get the children, American citizens, back in the country. Rutherford said she was seriously concerned about their safety with their father, a non-U.S. citizen who can no longer enter the United States since his visa was revoked.

"He could disappear tomorrow and I'd have no way to look," she said. "My biggest fear is that I wouldn't know where they are."

"I just want them to be OK," she said. "They're just little babies. They need a chance to have a consistent life."

Rutherford said she flies to France to see them whenever possible but has to keep working to afford her legal bills.

Giersch has not commented on the custody battle. He previously released a statement through his lawyer, Fahi Takesh Hallin, saying he is "focused on co-parenting the children, and continuing to promote any and all contact of the children with Kelly."

Rutherford, 43, and Giersch married in 2006. She left him in 2009, while pregnant with their second child, and they divorced in 2010.