Rory Feek Responds to Legal Threats Over ‘Family Dispute’ as He Denies Claims Daughter Is Unsafe and Slams ‘Cult’ Ties
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When singer Rory Feek married his young daughter’s teacher in July, eight years after the tragic loss of his wife Joey Feek, it seemed the family had finally found a happy ending.
But just weeks later, Rory’s two adult daughters began telling a different story. In a new interview with PEOPLE, Heidi Feek reveals that she and her sister Hopie are considering legal action against their father, whom they claim has cut them off from contacting their youngest sister Indiana, 10, and put her in harm’s way — while Rory claims that the situation is a “family dispute” that’s been blown out of proportion.
“This is a devastating change for her, because we’ve been in her life since the day she was born,” says Heidi. “She’s even come to stay with us once a month for most of her life.”
Meanwhile, Heidi has also expressed concerns over Indy being “left in the care of a group,” as she wrote in an Instagram post on Aug. 29.
Taste of Country, which first reported the story, identified the group as Homestead Heritage, which calls itself an “agrarian and craft-based intentional Christian community,” and interviewed multiple people with ties to the group.
A lengthy report published in the Texas Observer in 2012 alleged years of abuse within the community, including the sexual assault of children. In a statement shared to its website, Homestead Heritage called the media reports “slanderous” and said some people were attempting to “exploit the public media as a tool to further their own agendas.”
“The false accusations even include the allegation that we tolerate and cover up sexual abuse of minors,” the statement said, adding, “In every case of abuse we’ve ever encountered, it was our ministry that exposed and reported the crime.”
Heidi says that Indy was left in the care of Homestead’s Montana branch while Rory and his new wife Rebecca went on their honeymoon.
In his blog post, Rory said that while on his honeymoon, Indy was left with two families who both have children she is close with, and that she had a nice time.
“I am not a perfect father, but I’m also not an idiot,” he wrote.
Rory also denied that Homestead was a “cult,” and admitted that while every organization has “bad apples,” he has only had positive experiences with the group.
Homestead did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
For Heidi, Rory’s actions echo trauma from her childhood. She says that she and Hopie were told that their mother did not want to be in their lives — and say they only learned recently that this was not the truth.
“When we started getting cut off from Indy, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this had all happened before,” she says. “That’s when I found my mom and called her. She had always wanted to be part of our lives and had been waiting my whole life to share her story with me. Now, I realize it’s my duty to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.”
In his blog post, Rory denied Heidi’s telling of events.
“All this to say that I know that this has not been an easy life for Heidi and Hopie,” he wrote. “Most of the first fifteen years of their lives were without a mother and the one that they did get to finally have passed away young, just when they started to all become really close. And though they’ve recently reconnected with their birth mother, which I’m so glad to hear, it sounds like she has a whole other side of the story that she’s shared with them, saying that I kept them from being with her all those years. I hope someday they give me the opportunity to share my side of the twenty years that I raised them on my own, rather than just accuse me of something without any chance to respond.”
Content retrieved from: https://people.com/rory-feek-responds-to-family-legal-threats-denies-claims-daughter-is-unsafe-cult-ties-8704913.
