Originally appeared on E! Online
Rory Feek is telling his side of the story.
In the wake of the allegations made against him by his eldest daughter Heidi Feek, the country singer penned a note to both Heidi and his second-eldest daughter Hopie Feek in an Aug. 31 blog post titled “love, dad.”
Noting that he felt the internet was “not the place to settle family disputes,” the 59-year-old called out his older children for making accusations against him writing, “It is wrong in every way. My guess is that one day, my older girls, when they are even older girls, will look back and wish they had found a way to do this differently.”
He claimed that after two years of allegations from Heidi, he previously opted not to respond because “I love my kids.”
But in the wake of new claims and legal action from the 37-year-old, Feek broke his silence on the matter, saying of their dispute, “Love is the only answer.”
Much of the sisters’ claims surround their 10-year-old sister Indiana (Indy), who is the daughter of Rory and his late wife, Joey Feek, and who has Down Syndrome. Joey, who was half of the country duo Rory + Joey, died in 2016 after a battle with cancer.
U.S. & World
Rory said that prior to Joey’s death, they both got to know families and individuals in an organization called Homestead Heritage in Texas. The group defines itself as an "agrarian and craft-based intentional Christian community," however, there have been past claims that individuals in the group were involved in sexual and child abuse claims as well as domestic violence, per The Texas Observer.
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“If you’re asking if Homestead Heritage or Greycliff is a cult, the answer is no,” Rory wrote, noting that there are “bad apples” in every community. “Those folks are just living in a way that other people don’t like or understand, and it’s a whole lot easier to call something a cult and dismiss it than it is to look deeper into and actually find out what it is they are doing and why they’re doing it.”
He also accused his daughters of not speaking to him about the allegations against Homestead Heritage.
“What saddens me about the accusations against them the most is that no one reached out to me to ask about them or anyone else," he explained. "They just looked online, found people saying bad things that frustrated ex-members and strangers have said through the years, and ran with it as truth.”
This comes after Heidi and Hopie made accusations against Rory in a Taste of Country interview and on social media.
“Rory often left Hopie and I with people who took advantage of us – Hopie far worse than me, but she isn’t ready to tell that story yet,” Heidi wrote on Instagram on Aug. 29. “Recently Indy was left in the care of a group with a well documented history of physical and sexual abuse of children.”
Rory, who remarried Indy’s teacher, Rebecca back in July, added that his youngest child “has never been more loved or better cared for than she is right now.”
Rory wrote, “For the first time in her life, she has a mother,” after Joey died when Indiana was just two.
When Rory and Rebecca went on their honeymoon, they left Indiana in the care of the family that Heidi expressed concerns over, though Rory defended them in his blog post, calling the couple the “kindest, most beautiful people I’ve ever met in my life.”
He went on to note that Indiana, who served as a flower girl in her sister Hopie’s 2018 wedding, “absolutely” misses her sisters after he banned her from visiting them.
“Every couple of months, I used to let Indiana spend a night or two with her big sisters in Alabama, but about a year ago, I stopped allowing that,” Rory wrote. “Mostly because they refused to respect my wishes when she was there.”
Acknowledging his differing viewpoints with his older children, the self-proclaimed conservative Christian said that Heidi and Hopie didn’t respect his wishes when it came to boundaries he set for Indiana. Then things got even more heated amongst the family.
“When Child Protective Services called me out of nowhere, saying that it had been reported that Indiana was being neglected, along with other accusations, Heidi and Hopie forfeited their right to speak to their little sister,” Rory wrote. “The situation had escalated to them taping the conversations they were having with her and leading her on so they could find ammunition to use against me, and it had become clear that Heidi wasn’t looking out for Indiana’s best interest — she was looking for revenge and a way to hurt me, no matter the cost, and I was no longer going to let Indiana be a part of it.”
In response to her father’s post, Heidi and Hopie took to Instagram, writing to their father, “As sad as it is to say, we’re just happy to hear from you.”
Heidi added that Rory’s statements over Indiana’s care left her “heart broken,” and spoke in the defense of her late stepmother.
“My heart aches for Joey,” Heidi wrote. “You went on to say, ‘For the first time in her life she has a mother.’ How can you say that?”
Heidi and Hopie have created a GoFundMe page to help with legal fees as they pursue legal action against their father and to help Indiana.
“Hopie and Heidi are in a legal battle to ensure Indy receives the care and protection she desperately needs,” the page reads. “This process is complex, emotionally draining, and incredibly expensive. They wouldn’t be fighting this battle unless it was absolutely necessary to keep Indy safe.”
