Rory Feek speaks out after daughter Hopie reveals he’s not her biological father
Rory Feek has spoken out after his daughter, Hopie Feek, revealed that he is not her biological father.
The 59-year-old singer shared a blog post on Tuesday about his daughter, days after she shared a video on Instagram about her 23 & Me results, which revealed that Rory wasn’t her biological father. In her video, she also explained that she’s connected with her biological father, a man named B.C., and they’ve “gotten real close” within the last six months.
In his post, Rory recalled Hopie calling him out of the blue for the first time in two and a half years and asking to speak in person. She told him that she and her sister Heidi “recently reconnected with our birth mother, and we’ve gotten close in the last two years... and she shared something with me that I think you need to know.”
“‘I don't want to hurt you. But you need know that I took a ‘23 & Me’ test and it turns out that I have a different Dad than Heidi and Indiana,’” he recalled Hopie saying. “I’m not sure what I thought Hopie was going to say, but I was not expecting to hear that.”
According to the blog post, Hopie chose to take the 23 & Me test after her biological mother Tamera Gilmer — who was absent from her and Heidi’s childhood — said she was with another man during her relationship with Rory and was certain that he was Hopie’s father.
However, Rory told Hopie that he wasn’t completely surprised by this news before sharing a story about him and her mother from 1988 during a difficult point in their marriage.
He said that when he found out his ex was pregnant with Hopie, it was “frustrating,” since their “marriage was a mess.” He added that when his daughter was born a week or two past her due date, he had his suspicions about the timing of her pregnancy. Rory said he learned of her pregnancy shortly after he returned from his six-month deployment to the Middle East with the Marines.
However, despite his doubts, Tamera insisted that Hopie was his child.
After their divorce, Rory initially agreed to raise Heidi while Tamera would raise Hopie. But he later pleaded to keep Hopie with him and Heidi, eventually taking full custody of both daughters. From that moment on, Rory said he “raised” Hopie as his own.
“When I learned I wasn’t Hopie’s biological father, it didn’t change my love for her,” he wrote. “This news and this blood test don’t change anything for me. I love my daughter and always will.”
Hopie issued a response to Rory’s blog post on Wednesday. On Instagram, she said that her “one request” for Rory was “to be kind and not shame [her] mom,” but he did not do that.
“Today, he shared her private history in his blog, which is extremely disappointing,” she wrote. “I shared my story because I couldn’t keep the secret all to myself anymore. I’m really not a public person, but because Rory is, my private life becomes content for his fans (who are often unkind online).”
She went on to criticize Rory, claiming that he was “hateful and judgemental” when she came out as bisexual. She added that he “convinced” her to let him write about that experience in his book, which she now regrets.
“When his book came out, he had massive support and I had the opposite,” she added. “More hate from his fans. The things he wrote in that chapter still hurt.”
She also alleged that Rory would try to keep her from his 10-year-old daughter Indy, who he shared with his late wife, Joey Fleek. “It’s like he was already trying to push me out of his life,” she continued.
In her initial Instagram video about her 23 & Me results, she shared how similar she is to her biological father and praised the bond they’ve formed.
“Within 24 hours of finding him and messaging him on Facebook, he was here at my doorstep just to give me a hug and to meet me. I’ve never experienced unconditional love like that before,” she said. “I reconnected with my mom this past year and she’s freaking awesome. I learned how much she loves me and how much she wanted to be a part of my life but never really could.”
