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Friday 14 December 2012

Twenty years after boy, 12, divorced his parents he reveals his battle with drugs and depression - and regrets over how he never reconciled with his mother before she died


It was an unprecedented court battle that saw 12-year-old Gregory Kingsley successfully divorce his parents and start a new life with a large, loving family under the name Shawn Russ.

But 20 years after the case ended years of neglect at the hands of his biological parents, Russ has revealed that his struggles were far from over.

In his first interview in more than 17 years, he has described how he slipped into an adolescence of drug abuse, arrests and depression as he attempted to come to terms with his fame and settle into normal family life.


And, as he neared his thirties, demons still remained as he battled with the regret of never reconciling with his mother, Rachel, before her death in 2006.

'Winning the trial and being given a family that loves me wasn't the answer to everything,' he told People magazine. 'I've been on this quest just to be ordinary.'

Russ, who is now 32 and living in Webster, Massachusetts where he works in a glass door factory, hit headlines as 'Gregory K' when he sought a termination of parental rights in 1992.

After his biological parents divorced, he had been raised by his alcoholic father and spent a life on the road, travelling through Colorado and Florida and being handed from home to home.
Struggle: Shawn Russ has opened up about life after he divorced his parents when he was 12

When Russ was eight, his father assaulted his girlfriend and he went to live with her and his two younger brothers, Zachary and Jeremiah.

The arrangement lasted just months as, unable to cope, Rachel put him in foster care - a move which deeply affected the young boy into his adulthood.

He hardly had any relationship with his mother, who had given birth to him at 18, and would sneak collect calls to her whenever he could.

Pain: His mother, Rachel Kingsley, right, is comforted by her sister after the judge makes his ruling




'It took 28 years to come to terms with feeling abandoned by my mother,' he said.
He was sent to a boy's ranch, where he met attorney and child welfare advocate, George Russ. Russ, who was also raised by an alcoholic father, already had eight children, but 'something about Shawn rang a bell', he said.
The Russes invited the boy to their home and, on the second visit, he asked them to adopt him.

He moved in with the family but struggled with their routine. The Russes remember him suffering from crippling self esteem when he was unable to do things the other children could, such as ride a bike.

But as he began to settle in, taking saxophone and tennis lessons and camping with the Boy Scouts, his biological mother said she wanted him back and a legal battle was launched.

It meant that, at age 11, Russ was flung into the spotlight, appearing on shows including Oprah as he explained that he wanted to sever ties with the woman who had abandoned him.

'It was crazy,' he recounted. 'I was this unwanted kid. I really didn't know much, and here I was on TV.'

After a two-day hearing in Orlando, after Russ had turned 12, a circuit court judge granted the boy's wish. His father had never contested the case, but Rachel filed an unsuccessful notice of appeal.

He returned to the Russes home in Leesburg, Florida, with five new brothers, three new sisters and his new adoptive parents, George and Lizabeth Russ. But it wasn't easy to adjust.

'The fame came from a bad past,' he said. 'It wasn't an accomplishment of mine.'

Feeling misunderstood, he fell in with a bad crowd in his teenage years and began dabbling in drugs to numb his depression, which led to two marijuana-related arrests, People reported.

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