American Dad vs. Brazilian Stepdad
Sean Goldman got caught in the center of an international custody battle between his American father and Brazilian stepfather. In 2004, when he was 4 years old, Sean and his mother Bruna Bianchi went to Brazil for a two-week vacation, but his mother never left. That issue presented enough of a struggle for father David Goldman, who fought for years to have his son back but didn't regain custody. Bianchi married a Brazilian man in 2007 and died during childbirth in 2008. An ensuing fight between stepfather João Paulo Lins e Silva, who wanted custody of the child, and Goldman drew international media attention and raised a national debate over the rights of American parents whose ex-spouses take children out of the country. The battle eventually ended with a ruling by Brazil's Supreme Court that returned Sean to his American father in December 2009.