LITA FORD: I Have 'No Communication With My Sons Whatsoever'

In a brand new interview with The Women's International Music Network, '80s hard rock queen Lita Ford spoke about how she became an advocate for parents' rights shortly after her divorce in 2011, when she was allegedly denied contact with both of her sons. Asked if she was still actively involved in both organizations, Parental Alienation Awareness Organization and Kids First Parental Alienation Awareness, Lita said: "Yes, I am. As long as it exists, I will always be an activist for parental alienation. It is a form of evil. Our family legal system does nothing if you have enough money to pay them, they don’t care about your kids' well-being. My ex has kept my sons from me for seven years now. No communication with my sons whatsoever. No texting, no phone calls, no e-mails, nothing! This is alienation."

She continued: "He knows they love me, but they have to do what he says, go along with his lies because the backlash from him is too much to take. He wants to hurt me for divorcing him, so he is using our sons to inflict the pain. He has no reason at all to do this except he knows he is hurting me.

"I was the best mother anyone could have ever had. My sons loved me dearly, but he is a liar.

"I will forever be an activist against parental alienation, as long as it exists worldwide."

NITRO singer Jim Gillette last year dismissed Lita Ford's "self-serving claims and slanderous allegations" as "completely and 100% ludicrous," insisting that his ex-wife's accusations have been "more than a little frightening for our family."

Ford and Gillette were married for 16 years but split up in 2011. According to Ford, her difficult divorce helped inspire her latest album, "Living Like A Runaway" — which she originally planned to title "The Healing" — and she accused her former husband of turning their two sons against her.

In an interview with Metal Sludge, Gillette broke his silence on the situation, saying: "Unlike Lita, I don't believe it's right to say bad things about a child's parent publicly or in private. I think divorce is hard enough on kids and they certainly don't need to be hurt or embarrassed by an irrational parent who has an agenda. That said, I suppose I could finally shed a little light on the subject without being too harsh.

"First of all and for the record, I have sole legal and physical custody of our sons. Unfortunately, it goes much further than that. As heartbreaking and unbelievable as this might sound, Lita Ford is not even allowed to see our sons by way of an agreed-upon court order. This order was signed after nearly two years of litigation, during which time the courts only allowed her supervised visitation."

He continued: "Everything is legal about the boys being with me, and all of Lita's self-serving claims and slanderous allegations are completely and 100% ludicrous. Quite frankly, all of this is more than a little frightening for our family.

"Our sons have urged me for years to tell the world our side of the story but this is all I'm prepared to share at this point in time."

In July 2015, James Gillette, the older of the two Ford-Gillette sons, released a statement to Metal Sludge in which he called his mother "a child abuser. She was violent, threatening, and tried to make my brother and me hate our dad. Her attempts at parental alienation were constant and never-ending. When we didn't agree with her, she would become livid and out of control. We told child services, the sheriff's department, and many court-appointed professionals that our mother was crazy, violent, and we were afraid she would someday kill us in a fit of rage."

He added: We have not been kidnapped. We live with our dad and have every right to. Thankfully we never have to see our mother again and we have the legal paperwork to prove it.

"Unfortunately, my mother has never accepted any responsibility for her actions and continues to blame anyone and everyone all while publicly playing the victim."

Jim and James Gillette appeared on SiriusXM's "Opie With Jim Norton" show in March to respond to Lita's allegations that the kids had been coaxed by Jim to attack her. You can listen to the audio of their appearance at this location (beginning at around the 44-minute mark).

Lita told Classic Rock Revisited in a 2011 interview that she had become afraid of Gillette, who is a bodybuilder and martial artist. "Yes, he's big and yes, he's scary and it is real," she said. "There is nothing phony about him at all and I don't like it. When you're that big, and you're that scary, then you need to pick on somebody your own size.

"I wanted to get a divorce because he was hurting me," Ford continued. "You see how big he is; it's not right. I got an attorney and I asked her, 'How do I get out of the house?' She said, 'Wait until there is nobody around and then get your stuff and get out.' I said, 'I can't leave my kids.' I don't know why, or how the hell he knew, but he knew I was going to try and take my kids and he wouldn't let them out of his sight. He changed them."