has filed a restraining order against her mother and cousin one month after she was reported missing.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, the Gossip Girl alum, 36, requested a temporary restraining order against her cousin on Thursday, December 26. Banks also filed a request for a civil harassment restraining order on her mother and Singh.
In the paperwork, Banks claimed that her mom and cousin have “acted together to harass and spread lies” about her to “ruin” her “credibility” and “acting.” Banks also alleged that both women “manufactured” the story that she was a “missing person” and claimed her husband murdered her.
“They orchestrated this scheme in order to humiliate me publicly and ruin my professional acting career,” Banks claimed in the docs.
Banks also claimed that her mom and Singh “burglarized” her apartment while her husband, who has been referred to as CJ on social media, was home. Banks alleged that her mother and cousin “assaulted” CJ and caused “visible injuries on his face and neck.”
TMZ was first to report the news.
In November, Singh and Banks’ mother filed a missing person’s report after a welfare check revealed that the actress was not at her Los Angeles home.
“Five days without hearing from my cousin is red flags and alarm bells,” Singh told Eyewitness News at the time. “She doesn’t go more than 48 hours without speaking to me or her mom. That girl is more like a big sister to me.”
The L.A. police department revealed hours later that Banks had been found and she was safe. Banks later released a statement to let everyone know she was not missing.
“My name is Chanel Banks I’m a 36-year-old American nobody, and for my entire life I have been silently carrying the pain of the ritual … abuse, manipulation, and outright endless torment I’ve endured continuously since I was a defenseless baby, at the hands of my own so-called family, who are all so very concerned about my current whereabouts,” she told True Crime News in a November statement. “I have met with the police and verified that not only am I OK, but I’m finally free.”
Banks also claimed that she has not been in contact with her relatives for quite some time.
“For decades my family has been my spiritual, physical, and emotional warden, giving me zero authority of my personage,” she continued. “I was not allowed to make any decisions in life in any way without their approval. … Every instance I’d get close to leaving they’d falsify official government documents relaying lies concerning my mental health — for the record — I have no mental health or any other record aside from a parking ticket here and there, so law enforcement would unquestionably and mercilessly pursue me.”
