Christina Ricci files for divorce after being granted emergency protective order against husband

Actress Christina Ricci has filed for divorce from husband James Heerdegen.

According to TMZ, The Addams Family star filed the papers on July 3 (US time) at the LA County Superior Court, citing "irreconcilable differences". The couple were married for six years and share a five-year-old son, Freddie. In her filing, Ricci requested sole legal and physical custody of their only child. 

The news comes after 40-year-old Ricci was reportedly granted an emergency protective order against Heerdegen. Earlier this week, Us Weekly reported that police attended the couple's Woodland Hills home in LA following a "domestic battery radio call". Neither the film producer or actress were arrested at the scene, and it is not known who made the call, but Heerdegen has been ordered to stay away from Ricci.

The couple were married in 2013 and would have celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary in October. Ricci met the Hollywood producer on the set of her now-cancelled show, Pan Am, in 2011, they married two years later and welcomed Freddie in 2014. 

In a 2017 interview with Net-A-Porter's digital magazine, The Edit, Ricci said that marriage and motherhood forced her to grow up as it highlighted her "flaws".

"Marriage shows you your flaws in how you deal with things, and having a child forces you to grow up at the speed of light," she admitted. "I'm a completely different person than I was before I had my child.

"Because I was so celebrated for being a child, I think I held onto that immaturity for a very long time. It was the thing that made me special. Then at a certain point, like 35, it's not so special to be immature."

But the actress has embraced her role as mother, dedicating her life to Freddie.

"Having a child changed everything," she said in a previous interview with People. "It's made everything in my life actually important and matter. I now have to take things seriously, and I never did before. I want to succeed for him. My choices matter more."