Dancing With the Stars pro Gleb Savchenko has fired back after his ex-wife, Elena Samodanova, sought legal help to locate him and their 15-year-old daughter in L.A.
Samodanova, 41, filed a declaration with a California Superior Court judge on Friday, August 7, seeking to have her and Savchenko‘s 15-year-old daughter Olivia returned to China, according to documents obtained by Us. (TMZ was the first to report the news.)
Per Samodanova, Olivia arrived in L.A. on May 29 and was supposed to return home in early July. Her court filing includes an apparent email exchange with Savchenko, 42, in which he seemingly agreed that Olivia would fly to China on July 9 after attending a “Dancing With the Stars pro viewing event” on July 8 though Olivia never returned home. (Savchenko and Samodanova also share 9-year-old daughter Zlata.)
Samodanova submitted apparent text messages with Savchenko from late July, where she expressed concern that Olivia’s Hong Kong phone number was shut off. In these messages, Samodanova repeatedly asks to have Olivia’s new phone number.
“I have no direct telephone contact with Olivia and communicate with her only through Instagram messages. I do not know Olivia’s current residential address,” Samodanova wrote in her petition.
Savchenko allegedly replied via text on July 9, writing, “I have shared your requests with Olivia each time you’ve asked. She has told me that she has been in contact with you through Instagram messages and is aware that you would like her phone number. At this time, she has chosen not to provide it, and I am respecting her wishes.”
In addition to asking for help locating her daughter, Samodanova requested for the court’s assistance in blocking Savchenko’s attempts to enroll her in a Los Angeles high school.
Samodanova confirmed in her objection that she has also filed a separate “request for return of child” petition with the Central Authority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a division of Hong Kong’s Department of Justice.
Her California court petition includes correspondence with a representative of Hong Kong’s Department of Justice, who indicates that Samodanova’s case has been “referred to the California District Attorney’s office for processing.”
Gleb Savchenko and Elena Samodanova in 2018. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Race To Erase MS
“Once the Father and the Child have been located, the USCA will be able to determine the next legal steps,” the Department of Justice representative wrote.
In July, Us reported that Savchenko filed an emergency order with a Los Angeles court to change the terms of his custody arrangement with Samodanova. The pro dancer’s lawyers asked the court that he be “granted temporary sole legal and sole physical custody of [daughter] Olivia, in order for her to remain in California in her father’s care as she desires, and for permission to enroll Olivia into high school in Los Angeles County, California as she has expressed she wants.”
Samodanova’s objection was filed in California on Friday, though both sides are now at odds over the exact timing and content of her filing.
On Monday, August 10, Savchenko asked a California Superior Court to dismiss Samodanova’s objection on multiple grounds, according to documents obtained by Us.
His lawyers pointed out that the Code of Civil Procedure “requires that papers opposing a motion be filed and served at least nine court days before the hearing.” They argued that Samodanova failed to meet the deadline before a scheduled August 18 custody hearing because her objection was “not served until August 8,” which only left Savchenko with “six court days of actual notice.”
They also accused Samodanova of filing multiple versions of her objection over several dats, alleging that her documents were “notably different and conflict as well as being untimely filed and served.”
For those reasons, Savchenko “respectfully request[ed] that the Court strike, or decline to consider” Samodanova’s request to have Olivia returned to Hong Kong.
When the custody dispute erupted in July, Savchenko accused Samodanova of violating an agreement on June 29, 2023 that she could move with their daughters to Hong Kong only temporarily. Per Savchenko, his ex-wife initially agreed to return with their daughters after June 30, 2024 but has remained in Hong Kong instead.
“Elena has wrongfully kept our children in Hong Kong for several years,” he claimed in his July request for a custody change. “[She] failed and refused to return the children to the United States as she had agreed in writing to do. Instead, she has remained in Hong Kong, obtained permanent Hong Kong residency, enrolled the children in an expensive private school, got the children a cat, became engaged and had another child with her fiancé. Elena has essentially established her life with her fiancé and our children, in Hong Kong, without my permission that they remain with her in Hong Kong.”
Per the court documents, Samodanova communicated to her ex-husband’s attorneys that she “opposes all requests being made by your client.”
“I do not consent to a modification of current orders, a change of custody or the enrollment of our daughter Olivia in a California school,” she said.
The former couple were married for 14 years and welcomed two daughters before separating in 2020. (They finalized their divorce in October 2021.)
“It is with a heavy heart that I tell you my wife and I are parting ways after 14 years of marriage,” Savchenko told Us in a statement at the time “We still intend to coparent our wonderful children together who we love so dearly, and we will strive to continue to be the best parents that we can to them. We ask that you respect our family’s need for privacy and healing during this time.”
Us has reached out to representatives for both sides on this latest legal dispute.