After accusing Sia of being “unfit” to raise their son, the singer’s estranged husband has been denied sole custody of their son.
- READ MORE: Sia – ‘Music – Songs from and Inspired by the Motion Picture’ review: better than the movie
The pop star – real name Sia Furler – filed for divorce from her husband Daniel Bernard back in March, citing “irreconcilable differences”. They had privately welcomed their son, Somersault Wonder Bernard, last year after getting married in late 2022.
Late last month, court documents claimed that Bernard was demanding $250,000 (£187,000) per month in spousal support. The filings stated that he had been “financially dependent on Sia” and was seeking the payments to maintain his “luxurious and upper-class lifestyle”.
It later emerged that Bernard filed legal documents in a request to be granted sole custody of Somersault, alleging that Sia was an “unfit” parent. Bernard, who is a former radiation oncologist, cited Sia’s documented struggle with sobriety in the documents and claimed she posed a “serious and immediate danger” to their child.
According to People, Bernard went on to allege that Sia had been hospitalised for two weeks in September, and tested positive for barbiturates and benzodiazepines.
“Sia’s conduct is reckless, dangerous and demonstrates Sia’s utter disregard for Summi’s safety and well-being,” Bernard wrote, while also requesting $77,245 (£58,442) a month in child support.
Sia responded to the claims by accusing her ex of “weaponising” her history of substance abuse. “I have been fully sober for over six months and working my program which includes weekly testing and a sober companion,” the filing read.
“My recovery has been a cornerstone of my life and one of the primary reasons I chose to separate from Dan, whose ongoing engagement in a nightlife and recreational drug-use lifestyle is incompatible with a healthy environment for our child.”
A Los Angeles County judge has now rejected Bernad’s request and ordered that the couple stick to their previous custody agreement, citing insufficient evidence as the reason for the decision.
Court documents obtained by Page Six read: “The court finds that sufficient exigency for the requested emergency relief has not been shown at this time.
“The parties entered into a stipulated legal custody and interim physical custody arrangement on 1 August 2025. Most of the facts asserted in Respondent’s RFO were known at that time.”
In the previous court filings, Bernard said that the temporary support order he was seeking was “necessary” because Sia was “the breadwinner in our marriage”. He wrote: “We never needed to monitor our living expenses.”
He also said he had quit his job to run a short-lived medical business with her. Bernard added that to renew his certification and practise as a doctor again, he would need to complete several years of training and pass numerous rigorous exams.
In 2019, Sia adopted two 18-year-old boys who were ageing out of the foster care system. The singer divorced her first husband, filmmaker Erik Anders Lang, in 2016.
Sia opened up about receiving treatment for substance abuse during an interview in 2023, where she also revealed that she had been diagnosed with autism.
“When we finally sit in a room full of strangers and tell them our deepest darkest most shameful secrets and everybody laughs along with us, and we don’t feel like pieces of trash for the first time, we feel seen for the first time in our lives for who we actually are and then we can start going out into the world as operators just operating as humans,” she said.
The post Sia’s estranged husband denied sole custody of their son after he called her “unfit and unreliable” parent appeared first on NME.