Former White Stripes singer Jack White has provided an answer in court to his former wife Karen Elson, who had a restraining order issued against him last week and has petitioned that he submit to a psychiatric exam.
Rolling Stone obtained court documents from Davidson County Circuit Court in Nashville in which White objects to being characterized as an unfit father to their two children. In the countermotion, his lawyer Cathy Speers Johnson writes, "The reason for filing this response is that Mr. White does not want to be portrayed as something he is not, violent toward his wife and children."
The note also refers to emails the pair sent one another, including one dated May 19, 2013, where she calls him an "amazing father." The motion for a psychiatric exam is described as "inflammatory . . . . disingenuous, fraudulent and retaliatory and simply designed to malign him in the public record or to gain an upper hand in this litigation."
He said he did not oppose the restraining order, but objected to limited communication with his children.
White noted that Elson left the children in his care after signing the restraining order affidavit and then went on a "work/pleasure trip" in New York. "One who was truly fearful of another would not leave their children alone with that person for 10 days," the response noted. "The truth of the matter is that Ms. Elson is not fearful for herself or the parties' minor children."
In Elson's filing, she had referred to a musician White had particular enmity toward — going so far as to wanting to have his child removed from a class where that musician's child was also taking part — and White's countermotion revealed that the singer in question was The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach.
In one email, writes The Hollywood Reporter, White called Aeurbach a "derogatory name" and said he didn't want to spend the next 12 years of their children's schooling "with people trying to lump us together."
White's spokesperson told THR that he would only comment in court filings on the case, and Auerbach's spokesperson said he had no comment. Auerbach is also going through a divorce, as announced in February.