Country star Rory Feek has responded to his daughter Hopie Feek’s revelation that he is not her biological father.
The musician, 59, shared a blog post on Monday, stating that ‘this news and this blood test doesn’t change anything’, and adding, ‘I love you as my daughter and I always will.’
He went on to say that his love for Hopie ‘isn’t based on us having the same blood running through our veins, I love her because she’s my child, even if technically… she’s not.’
However, Hopie, 36, called the blog post ‘extremely disappointing’ in a series of messages posted to her Instagram on Wednesday, taking issue with him sharing personal family details and ‘shaming’ her mom.
Hopie and her older sister Heidi, 38, are daughters of Tamara Gillmor, who was married to Rory Feek from 1985 until their divorce in 1992. Hopie was born in 1988.
Earlier this week Hopie, who was raised by Rory, took to social media to share the surprising update with her followers, explaining that the results from a 23andMe DNA test confirmed her suspicions.
Country star Rory Feek, 59, responded to his daughter Hopie Feek’s, 36, revelation that he is not her biological father, saying the news ‘doesn’t change anything’ and that he will always love her; Pictured in 2019
However, Hopie (pictured) called the blog post ‘extremely disappointing’ in a series of messages posted to her Instagram, taking issue with him sharing personal family details and shaming her mom
The news comes amid Rory’s ongoing dispute with both Hopie and her sister Heidi, who accused him of exposing their younger sister Indiana to an ‘abusive’ cult.
In his blog, titled ‘A Different Dad’, Rory said that he had been ‘praying’ that Hopie or Heidi would call right before his phone rang and he saw Hopie’s name.
‘I hadn’t seen either of the girls in a year and they’d not spoken much more than a sentence at a time to me in more than two. So to see Hopie’s name come up on my phone felt like an answer to prayer.’
The musician went on: ‘I had no idea what she wanted to talk with me about. And honestly, it didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to see her. To have the opportunity to look into her eyes and her look into mine, with hopes that she might realize that we aren’t enemies. And that I love her deeply.’
‘And looking back now, I can’t help but think my wish came true. Although in a way that I never expected,’ he added.
The two went on to meet at a cemetery where Rory’s late wife Joey, who passed in 2016, is buried.
Hopie then told him how she and Heidi have gotten close to their birth mother after reconnecting in the past two years.
Rory shared how his daughter told him, ‘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.’
Rory said he was ‘not expecting to hear that.’
Hopie went on to tell him through tears that her mom let her know there had been someone else, and she thought he was her father.
Rory wrote in a blog post that his love for Hope ‘isn’t based on us having the same blood running through our veins, I love her because she’s my child, even if technically… she’s not’; pictured 2024
Rory said that although he didn’t know, the news didn’t ‘completely surprise’ him, as he had been puzzled by his ex wife’s due date, which didn’t align with his return from deployment; Seen in 2017
Hopie and her older sister Heidi, 38, are daughters of Tamara Gillmor, who was married to Rory Feek from 1985 until their divorce in 1992. They primarily grew with Rory before recently reconnecting with their mother Tamara (the sisters pictured with Tamara)
She then confirmed, telling Rory ‘You’re not my father.’ Hopie went on to say that she’s known for a while and ‘can’t keep it a secret anymore.’
Meanwhile Rory said that although he didn’t know, the news didn’t ‘completely surprise’ him.
He then recounted the story of his return from Japan as a Marine after a Middle East deployment, and how she told him she was pregnant while they were struggling with their marriage.
Rory thought Hopie was born premature, as she arrived before her due date. He remarked to the doctor on her development for being premature, only to be told she was actually overdue.
‘I told him, “she can’t be late, because I didn’t get back from Japan until the second week of January…” And how the doctor and I stood looking at each other uncomfortably for a few seconds, me trying do the math in my head, before he finally said, “I don’t know what to tell you, except… this baby is way past her due date.”‘
He later asked her mother if she was his biological daughter, and was told that she was.
His and Tamara’s marriage fell apart and the paired divorced in 1992, four years after Hopie was born. Rory went on to raise the girls, and said they only saw their birth mom twice after she left while the girls were growing up.
He then recalled a tender moment with Hopie: ‘I told her I didn’t care. That this news and this blood test doesn’t change anything for me. “I love you as my daughter and I always will.”‘
Hopie shared her frustration with the blog post on her Instagram
She said her only request during her conversation with Rory was to ‘be kind and not shame my mom’
She went on to say that she had regrets about telling Rory that she is bisexual, as she feels he used the information to sell books
Hopie added an audio clip of him narrating the chapter in his 2018 memoir Once Upon a Farm, where he talks about her sexuality
‘From now on, I just wish my stories could be my own to tell and share,’ she wrote. ‘I want to move forward and find happiness with the people who love me, far away from this online hate’
Hopie then told him that she had been in touch with her biological father, and that they’ve started getting to know each other, as she showed him a photograph of the man.
‘And as I sat on the bench beside my thirty-six year old daughter, she held up her phone and shared a picture of her with a stranger who was now her real father. Life is strange,’ Rory wrote of the moment.
He then recalled the two times their mom came to visit the girls, as they were growing up. She said the first visit was when Hopie and Heidi were about 7 and 9, and that by then ‘she’d had another child, and though the girls were excited to meet their mom, they said it was more like meeting an aunt or someone they’d heard about, but didn’t have a connection to.’
Another visit happened when they were in high school, after he was already with his late wife Joey.
‘By then she had a couple of kids and seemed to have found happiness and a life she was proud of. And thankfully, I had too,’ he wrote.
He went on to say, ‘I’m disappointed and sad that it took three decades to learn this. But the truth is…I mostly hurt for Hopie.’
‘This is going to be hard for her I know. Making sense of something that’s hard to make sense of. Finding out that who you were, and also ‘whose’ you were, is not what you’ve been led to believe your whole life.’
As for his ex, he wrote: ‘I also hurt for Hopie’s Mom. Knowing that she carried that secret around all these years. I can only imagine how hard that was, and how scary it must have been for her to finally tell the truth.’
‘All these years later, I don’t fault her Mom now for keeping this from Hopie, and from me. I’m sure she had her reasons. She was young and I’d like to think did the best she could with what she had and who she was at the time.’
He wrapped up his post stating he was ‘thankful to still get to be learning how to be a better father in my old age.’
The news comes amid Rory’s ongoing dispute with both Hopie and her sister Heidi, who accused him of exposing their kid sister Indiana to an ‘abusive’ cult
Rory has been raising daughter, Indiana, 10, in an agrarian Christian community tied to Homestead Heritage – which has come under fire after members admitted to child sex abuse
Hopie shared her frustration with the blog post on her Instagram.
She said her only request during her conversation with Rory was to ‘be kind and not shame my mom.’
‘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 say that she had regrets about telling Rory that she is bisexual, as she feels he used the information to sell books.
‘When I privately came out to him as bisexual, he was hateful and judgmental. Later, he convinced me to let him write about it in his book. I regret that. When his book came out, he had massive support and I had the opposite. More hate from his fans. The things he wrote in that chapter still hurt.’
Hopie added an audio clip of him narrating the chapter in his 2018 memoir Once Upon a Farm, where he talks about her sexuality.
‘From now on, I just wish my stories could be my own to tell and share,’ she wrote. ‘I want to move forward and find happiness with the people who love me, far away from this online hate.’
When she revealed the surprising news that Rory is not her biological father, Hope stated: ‘Most of you know me through my family and their story. I’ve always felt a little bit different and now I know why.’
‘So I took a 23andMe DNA test and I got the results I never knew I needed.’
Hopie then shared a picture of herself and her biological father hugging and smiling for the camera as she continued: ‘Turns out this is my dad, not the one that everyone knows.’
Stating the his initials are BC, she explained that the two have ‘gotten really close and gotten to know each other’ over the last six months, adding ‘and it’s so strange because we’re so much alike.’
Hopie admitted that she had to stalk BC online to find him as she continued: ‘Within 24 hours of finding him and messaging him on Facebook, he was here at my doorstep just to give me a hug and meet me.
‘I’ve never experienced unconditional love like that before.’
She then continued: ‘There’s so much more love to my story than I ever thought there was.
However, Feek insisted Indiana ‘has never been more loved or better cared for than she is right now’; Seen with Hopie, Heidi, and his youngest daughter Indiana
‘I reconnected with my mom this past year, and she’s freaking awesome. Learning how much she loves me and how much she wanted to be a part of my life but never really could…’
Hopie added: ‘To [now finding] a dad who I never realized I had, who just immediately loved me and is so excited to call me his daughter.’
She then concluded: ‘I’m just really grateful for all of this and the new people I have in my life and the new family that love me for who I am.’
Rory remarried in 2002, and started a successful music duo with new wife Joey.
The Grammy-award-winning pair made a half-dozen albums and TV specials, and sold nearly a million records from 2008 to 2016, according to the website for Homestead at Hardison Mill (which is Rory’s restored historic farm, home and concert hall south of Nashville).
Joey tragically passed at age 40 in March 2016 following a battle with cervical cancer.
The couple’s daughter, Indiana, was ultimately the one who gave Rory permission to tie the knot his new wife Rebecca in 2024.
Rory married Rebecca, his daughter’s schoolteacher, in Greycliff, Montana on July 14.
Hopie and sister Heidi primarily grew with Rory before recently reconnecting with their mother Tamara.
After Hopie came out as bisexual, Rory admitted in 2018 that accepting her had been a challenge to his Christian faith.
Now the musician and his eldest daughter have made headlines due to their shocking claim that he has blocked them from seeing their 10-year-old sister, who has Down Syndrome.
His eldest daughters took legal action against him, revealing that Rory was living in an agrarian Christian community tied to Homestead Heritage – which has come under fire after at least one of its members admitted to child sex abuse.
Heidi claimed on Instagram that her father left her 10-year-old sister – who has Down Syndrome – ‘in the care of a group with a well-documented history of physical and sexual abuse of children.’
Indiana was just two years old when her mother, Joey, died of cervical cancer in 2016 at the age of 40. Rory married Joey in 2002; the two seen in 2013
‘Indiana, who has special needs, deserves to be in a safe and stable environment where her well-being is the top priority,’ she wrote.
Three weeks later, Rory shared a blog post defending his decision and shared copious details of his family’s life on their middle-Tennessee farm, noting they are baking, canning and pickling various things – including occasional pickleball sessions.
He went on to update Indiana’s or ‘Indy’s’ fun on the farm: ‘Indy’s been having lots of fun doing fifth grade homeschooling with Rebecca, who she has been calling Mama now for about six weeks.’
The post closed with a plea to leave his youngest child out of the ‘mud’ – claiming his eldest are the ones hurting her the most.
‘And lastly – contrary to what they say is the motive behind all this – the person my daughters, and everyone is hurting the most is our little one.’
As legal proceedings remain ongoing, details of the filing remain confidential as Indiana is a minor.
