General Hospital Star Steve Burton Takes Ex to Court Over Summer Custody

When a marriage ends, the custody battles often hit harder than the split itself. General Hospital star Steve Burton, 55, is learning that lesson the hard way as he navigates an increasingly contentious dispute with his ex-wife, Sheree Gustin, 49, over their 11-year-old daughter Brooklyn.

According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Burton has accused Gustin of“blatant parental alienation”—essentially blocking his time with their youngest child and undermining his role as her father. The tension escalated when Burton remarried in 2025, wedding Michelle Lundstrom, and Burton claims Gustin refuses to acknowledge Michelle’s position in his life or their daughter’s life. It’s a painful reality for many blended families: accepting a former spouse’s new partner can feel impossible, especially when custody and child-rearing are already fraught.

The real flashpoint centers on summer visitation. Burton and Gustin finalized their divorce in 2023 with a joint custody agreement that guaranteed him regular summer visits and two weeks of vacation with Brooklyn each year. But this past May, Burton alleged in court filings that Gustin has“systematically refused to honor”those terms. His frustration boiled over in a March 14, 2026 text where he accused Gustin of using activities—like junior guards—as a shield to keep their daughter away.“Activities do not trump time with family,”he wrote, pointing to the signed agreement both had committed to.

Gustin’s response was straightforward: she’d told Burton about the junior guards commitment beforehand. She’s also denied the manipulation charges and countered that she’s been flexible on coparenting. For her part, Gustin shares two younger daughters with her current husband, Jason Amador, and her resistance to extended summer trips may stem from not wanting Brooklyn away from home for more than three weeks at a time.

What’s striking here is how quickly legal language like“parental alienation”becomes the battleground when two people simply can’t agree on what’s best for their child. Burton’s paying $10,000 a month in child support—the agreement was restructured in January—so this isn’t about money. It’s about access, presence, and the ability to be a hands-on dad. Meanwhile, Gustin appears to be operating from a different priority: stability and proximity to mom. Both aren’t inherently wrong, but they’re incompatible under the current arrangement.

This case is a stark reminder that celebrity doesn’t insulate you from the messy realities of coparenting after divorce. It’s also a window into how quickly post-separation relationships can become weaponized—whether intentionally or not—and how easily kids end up caught in the middle of competing visions of what“being there”means.