Hungarian mum’s 1.5-year fight for her son ends in court siding with alcoholic dad in US: Adrienn couldn’t even say goodbye

Kovács Adrienn’s Budapest flat stands silent: no one’s playing with four-year-old Armaan’s toys any more (he’s referred to as Armin or Armi on various platforms). The little boy – a Hungarian citizen – was taken from nursery by police and “returned” to the US to live with his father, who struggles with alcohol problems. For the past 1.5 years, his mum has piled up evidence of the man’s dangerous lifestyle, but the Hungarian court still ruled in the father’s favour.

Adrienn and the American man’s romance started off perfectly: the young Hungarian woman met her partner in the US, they had their son Armaan, and everything seemed fine – they were happy. But the dad started drinking more and more often, got caught drink-driving several times by police, and Adrienn felt her child’s safety was at risk, Blikk reported.

Escape to Budapest, then the battle begins

At the end of 2022, with the dad’s agreement, mum and son moved back to Budapest to live with the grandparents. Things were peaceful for six months, then the father turned up with lawyers and demanded the child back aggressively. He even flew to Budapest in person, allegedly drunk. Adrienn gathered every bit of evidence – police reports, witness statements – but the Hungarian court decided Armaan belonged in the US with his dad.

The mum appealed; she didn’t want to hand her son over “like a parcel” at a lawyer’s office. But her fight was in vain: a few weeks ago, police showed up at the nursery.

“They practically ripped him from his grandad’s arms,” Adrienn recalled, her voice breaking. “I couldn’t even pack his things; they didn’t wait for me to get there. I couldn’t say goodbye – now I only see him on a screen.”

Case heads to US court – and they won’t even let her speak Hungarian to him

The case now moves to New York, where Adrienn has to prove she’s not a danger to the boy. The child’s lawyer branded her a “child abductor”, even though the filings clearly show that the dad misled the authorities.

Lawyers even suggested she shouldn’t speak Hungarian to Armaan on video calls – only in English, and supervised. They ignored the fact there’s a warrant out for the dad for drink-driving (police arrested him right after the hearing), and the judge just shrugged. They wouldn’t let Adrienn near the police station in case the boy saw her, and they wouldn’t tell her where he was.

The next hearing is at the end of January, and until then, Armaan stays with his father in America. Adrienn’s holding firm: she’s gearing up with more evidence to keep fighting.

Photos of Adrienn and her son can be seen in Blikk’s article.

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