Children tend to side with the parent that they spend the most time with, that fullfills the most wishes, that matches their personality the most and that appears to work harder on saving their marriage/the status quo. On Ella Alice ticks off all four boxes, I believe I even said this a long time ago that I believe Ella is genuinely believing Alice (even if she does realizes some of her faults on occasions, see the recording). Add on that the negative feelings against Ioan of leaving them alone with Alice and her issues, the strong entitlement fueled by Alice, and the sense that he prefers his girlfriend (this is a common feeling in these situations btw). Plus very importantly the fact that they constantly see Alice angry/sad/whatever ("Mom is sad" = daddy's fault) and you create a very negative bias to one parent. So much that any contrary info (e.g. financial records showing that it's not him that hides money) will be disregarded as even more lies. This all wont change until she and Alice properly clash (like everyone else did), I had some hopes that she isnt this far gone yet but the latest actions show she is.
PS: also children are not fully developed, they dont know that divorce is normal or that downsizing is normal. Their mother is clearly telling them that they have a right to maintain the lifestyle they always had, and thus daddy is bad for not giving that. Heck, some adults dont even get this. why should the children of Alice Evans understand this?
its 5 days minimum.
Also Ioan and Bianca have both the option to postpone the court hearing once without any reason given (most take 3-6 months, I assume they'd be happy with a week), so serving it as late as possible is pretty damn pointless. Especially in a case as public as this. They probably have the response ready for a week and more lol