When Ioan Gruffudd‘s fiancee Bianca Wallace posted a picture of herself wearing a new Rolex watch, little did she know it would spark such a massive row.
A hardworking actress, she saw nothing wrong with a little retail therapy every so often.
But Wallace’s display of pride in her latest acquisition spawned yet another chapter in the long-running feud between British actor Ioan and his ex-wife Alice Evans.
Ioan Gruffudd’s fiancee Bianca Wallace enraged his ex when she posted a picture of herself wearing a new, expensive Rolex watch
The Welsh actor and Ms Wallace (pictured) announced their engagement in January, with Ms Wallace wearing a ring worth thousands of pounds
For Alice, who is the mother of Ioan’s two daughters, has been claiming she is poverty stricken because, she alleges, the Welsh heartthrob hasn’t been paying her the maintenance payments she is due.
She says her ex has paid her nothing at all, either in child or spousal support – something he denies – since April, and last week filed a legal request for ‘public assistance’ pending a hearing over maintenance payments set for later this year.
In the circumstances, the sight of Bianca with a watch on her wrist worth thousands of pounds – to go along with the stunning engagement ring that Ioan bought her when he proposed in January – has only served to fuel her rage.
Friends of Ioan, who say they are unable to stand by as she spouts such ‘unfounded and untrue’ claims, say he is equally furious. They describe British-American actress Alice, 55, as a ‘total nightmare’, who is ‘determined to damage’ her ex ‘as much as she can’.
They insist that he has paid ‘more than what the court ruled’, has made payments since April, and say her pleas of poverty are ‘just nonsense’.
Gruffudd and Ms Evans back in 2016 before their relationship turned sour. He filed for divorce in March 2021, shortly after she claimed on social media that her husband of 14 years was walking out on her and their two daughters
The couple with their daughters, Elsie and Ella, who are now 10 and 14
They also point out that Bianca is entitled to spend whatever she likes on whatever she wants, including an expensive watch.
One tells the Mail: ‘If anything, Ioan has overpaid Alice what the court ruled. He wants to ensure the best for his children and would make sure they were looked after entirely as they should be.
‘For Alice to say different to that is totally wrong. And what Bianca spends her own money on is her business; to start bringing into things is really silly.
‘She is her own woman who has her own money. It feels like a last ditch attempt to have a pop.
‘Alice comes across as very bitter and jealous. While these things are never easy to navigate, this is getting out of control. It is becoming a desperately sad situation. You’d think Alice would know when to be quiet.
‘It’s verging on being very cruel.’
But cruelty has been the underlying theme of this divorce, which went public in January 2021, when Alice took to Twitter (now X) to reveal that her husband of 14 years was leaving her.
‘My beloved husband/soulmate of 20 years Ioan Gruffudd has announced that he is to leave his family starting next week. Me and our young daughters girls [sic] are very confused.
‘We haven’t been given a reason except ‘he no longer loves me’. I’m so sorry.’
When that tweet disappeared, she posted another, saying that he had deleted her announcement. She wrote: ‘Hell yes, when I am being gaslit and mentally tortured, then hell yes, I will wash my linen in public.’
As the latest turn of events shows, she certainly meant it.
Gruffudd and Ms Wallace are said to have met in Australia, where the Hornblower star had been filming the ABC series Harrow and Bianca had been working as an extra
The Hollywood stars met on the set of 102 Dalmatians in 2000, when they played on-screen love interests Chloe and Kevin
The Rolex incident marks only the latest sad turn in a saga that had such promising beginnings.
Ioan and Alice met on the set of 102 Dalmatians more than 20 years ago, when they played onscreen love interests Chloe and Kevin. They then fell in love in real life and, on New Year’s Day, 2006, he popped the question.
A lavish wedding in Mexico followed and then along came Ella, now 14, and then ten-year-old Elsie. They settled in Los Angeles, where they became known as one of Hollywood’s more fun couples and quickly accumulated lots of friends.
But cracks began to appear in their marriage. Then began the war of words, which escalated swiftly – and as the fallout raged, the gloves came off.
According to Ioan’s friends, part of the problem was that Alice had a tendency to tweet after having had a few drinks.
She was also prone to posting rambling messages on video-sharing website Cameo, where she sold messages to fans for £30.
At one point she conceded that she was ‘probably drinking too much’.
‘Alice was clearly hurting but she would regularly go onto Twitter and post,’ says a friend of her ex-husband. ‘At times it was very unseemly, and it was hurtful. There were children in the middle of it.
‘Ioan took the view that he would keep a dignified silence on it all.’
In a bid to end what he saw as a campaign of abuse, Gruffudd took legal action, and in court papers claimed that Alice had branded him a ‘child abuser’ on social media.
He also accused her of setting up anonymous social media accounts, as many as 22 on Twitter/X, which she would use to lambast him to her followers.
In court documents last year, Ioan, 49, claimed Alice called him an ‘abusive c***’ and so breached a restraining order, which had been in place for three years.
He also alleged that Alice flashed her ‘bare behind’ when he dropped off their children at her Los Angeles home.
Ioan claimed: ‘Since May 26, there have been a number of anonymous social media accounts set up – 22 on Twitter – naming Bianca and myself ‘child abusers’, and making incredibly slanderous and 23 defamatory claims.’
Friends say it was ‘clear as anything’ what she was doing.
One pal of Ioan’s said: ‘Alice is trying to make this as difficult as possible now.
‘At this rate it feels as if it will never end. There have been such wild accusations being made; let’s not forget all of the Twitter posts which the judge had to tell her to stop.
‘Why would you want to put your children in a situation where they have to read all of that? They are at an age where they can see all of this. It is hard to understand why anyone would do that. It’s crazy; none of this has been good for their welfare at all.
‘We are in an age where this stuff stays on the internet for ever; if they are not reading it now then what is to say that they won’t read it in years to come.’
‘He has tried to get them help and to ensure that they are looked after properly. He has pushed for them to have therapy.
‘Those girls are what matter the most to Ioan and it is really devastating for him to see this happening.’
As for the future, Ioan’s friends say they fear that their fallout will ‘never go away’ and will continue to plague the already fractured family for the foreseeable future.
‘Alice is just going to keep coming back at any opportunity there is,’ says a friend of the Hornblower star.
‘She is so angry and she doesn’t appear to have a lot else going on right now. We can only hope that Alice finds a way to find her own happiness.’