Nicolas Cage’s former daughter-in-law has denied she suffered a setback in her attempt to serve the actor with a cross-complaint alleging Cage and the mother of his son drove wedges into the former couple’s marriage and sabotaged his medical treatment, saying this week that a judge’s ruling did not deal with the merits of her case.
On Tuesday, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Huey P. Cotton struck a previous order he had granted Hila Cage Coppola to serve Cage by publication. In light of that decision, the judge denied as moot Cage’s separate motion to quash the summons. Hila Coppola says the ruling was procedural and did not address the merits of her claims.
Weston Coppola and his mother, Christina Fulton, have both filed lawsuits against Hila Coppola. The son of Nicolas Cage alleges that after the former couple’s divorce action was filed, his ex-spouse reached out to media outlets and told them lies about the plaintiff and his family that were published on the social media, including that his mother encouraged him to use Xanax with her and sleep nude in bed with her until he was 17 years old.
Hila Coppola denies making the statements and says they have been falsely attributed to her. Hila Coppola brought her initial self-represented cross-complaint against the actor, his son and Fulton in February 2024, but she did have an attorney when she filed an amended complaint in April 2025. She alleges defamation, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Hila and Weston Coppola were married in April 2018. She says their divorce was finalized in 2024.
“As time went on, (Hila Coppola) began to observe that (Weston Coppola) and certain members of his family were also increasingly emotionally abusive, manipulating and would exert undue influence upon (Weston Coppola) by sabotaging his treatment through financial and coercive control, thus increasingly causing tension in the couple’s marriage,” Hila Coppola wrote.
When Cage, Fulton and Weston Coppola found out that Hila Coppola had filed for separation, they “launched a retaliatory smear campaign in the media” in order to assist Weston Coppola in obtaining an advantage in the couple’s divorce, according to Hila Coppola’s lawsuit.
In March of this year, Cotton ruled that Hila Coppola could serve Cage with the lawsuit and summons through publication and notice in a legal newspaper. But Weston Coppola’s attorneys subsequently filed court papers asking that the order be stricken, contending that none of the attorneys in the case were given notice of the hearing in which Hila Coppola sought relief.
In addition, Cage’s attorneys filed court papers seeking to quash the lawsuit and summons, stating that Hila Coppola new the actor lived in Nevada and did not do enough to try and serve him personally before resorting to service by publication. But the judge denied the motion because he had already stricken his order granting Hila Coppola permission to serve Cage by publication.