Father Responds to Daughter's Viral Video

Okay, I wake up at 6:00 AM to do some work.

Oh.

I get my coffee, I sit down, I open my computer, and what am

I greeted with? Well, hundreds of comments calling me a

deadbeat dad-

Jesus

... a child abandoner, and all manner of other insults.

So I think, "What's this all about?" Well, after a few minutes of

investigation, I discover that my daughter, Maddie, has made a

video about me. She's a screenwriter in Hollywood.

She's also a big social media influencer with millions of followers.

Some of her videos get millions of views, and this video has

tens of millions of views, one million likes-

Uh-oh

... 20,000 comments, 40,000 bookmarks, 30,000

reposts. It's just insane. So I thought I'd better

watch this video, and frankly, I was pretty chagrined by what I heard,

to say the least. But honestly-

Okay, here we go

... the more I watch this video, the more I like it.

Well, I like about 98% of it. However, I do need to correct

a few statements in the video. But first, let's just watch

Maddie's 90-second video, and then I'll give you my comments.

What's a piece of trauma that you have that's funny?

It has to actually be funny.

I'll go first. My dad abandoned my family when I

was five years old.

That is, um, a wife and four kids. He abandoned us and then

pursued amateur breakdancing.

Some more context is needed here, needless to say .

I will, uh, I will talk about this in a moment.

All right, let's continue with the video.

And, and he got really good. He, like, blew up.

Like, he became, like, a D-list celebrity status, like,

viral breakdancer.

He became, like, the oldest actively competing breakdancer

in the world.

Then he got on Good Morning America, and talk shows, and Washington Post wrote

about him. And he went super viral, and he did all these interviews,

and he danced

with Paula Abdul. And here, I'll show you.

Let's see. Take a look at this 60-year-old

breakdancer.

Yes, 60 years old.

Amazing.

That's Ben Hart. He's competing at a breakdancing

competition in Philadelphia, and

he may not have won, but he... I tell you what, he

is winning over a lot of people

on the internet.

It's impressive.

He really is.

Yep. He's winning a lot of people on the

internet.

This guy wouldn't pay my medical bills.

That is not true.

There was no split custody or anything.

Like, he just, like, left four kids to do that.

He may not have paid for some of my medical bills growing up,

but he did give me

this breakdancing merchandise. So that's him.

He's on his-

There's a nice shirt

... own B-boy moniker, which is his B-boy name, 'cause his name

is Ben Hart.

You know, I'll get texts like this.

Uh-huh.

"Happy birthday, question mark," and then, like, links to his, to his breakdancing

videos.

That's true.

If you have funny trauma, like actual funny ha-ha trauma,

I need to hear it.

Thank you.

Okay, in many ways, I love this video, and of course, I love my daughter, Maddie,

and we get along great. At least I think we do.

But a few corrections are in order, or at least a few things

that need to be put

in context. First, I can see that as a five-year-old,

Maddie would see her dad as having abandoned the family.

One day I was living there, the next day I wasn't, and that will look

like abandonment to a child. But married couples do get divorced

about half the time in America.

Ooh, that sucks.

Even though I was just living a mile or so down the street in La Grange,

Illinois.

We just weren't living under the same roof.

Now, about not paying medical bills.

That sucks.

That's just not correct. Here was the financial arrangement of the

divorce. Maddie's mom, my ex-wife, got $2 million

at the get-go, out of the gate.

And this girl's complaining?

A lump sum payment. Plus, I was paying her $18,000 per

month in child support and alimony.

This was-

Oh, my God.

That's incredible

... was later reduced to $12,000 per month.

Only 12,000.

And of course, I paid health insurance and out-of-pocket medical costs.