I cordially invite you to read the strangest story I’ve heard all month.
A popular TikTok user by the name of Madi Hart posted a now-viral video to the platform Wednesday in which she detailed her “trauma” over her breakdancing father leaving her family.
“My dad abandoned my family when I was five years old, that is a wife and four kids, he abandoned us and then pursued amateur breakdancing,” she claimed in a TikTok video that now has over 5 million views.
@madihart_soccer plz dont bully him btw u just have to laugh!! #storytime #anxiousattachment #therapytiktok #daddyissues #storytimes ♬ original sound – Madi Hart
“And he got really good. He like blew up, like he became like a D-list celebrity status like viral break dancer,” Hart continued. I’m just warning you now, folks, get used to the word “like” because Hart uses it liberally.
“He became like the oldest actively competing break dancer in the world. Then he got on Good Morning America and talk shows and the Washington Post wrote about him and he went super viral and he did all these interviews and he danced with Paula Abdul … here I’ll show you.”
Hart then shared a video of her dad break-dancing on Good Morning America while she yelled over it “this guy wouldn’t pay my medical bills!”
“Like there was no split-custody or anything, like he just left four kids to do that!” Hart exclaimed.
“He may not have paid for some of my medical bills growing up but he did give me this breakdancing merchandise,” Hart joked.
Hart’s father, Ben Hart, aka Beni-Hana, responded in kind, posting a 10-minute response video to Twitter.
“Frankly I was pretty chagrinned by what I heard, to say the least,” Ben Hart noted.
I wake up at 6 a.m. to find that my daughter has posted a TikTok video trashing me.
She’s a big social media influencer with millions of followers. Here it is . . . pic.twitter.com/dwPYUjD3AC— Ben & Wanda Hart (@BenHart_Freedom) February 18, 2024
In Ben Hart’s 10-minute video, he argues that he didn’t abandon his family, but simply got divorced from Madi’s mother and moved “a mile or so down the street in La Grange, Illinois.”
“Now, about not paying medical bills, that’s just not correct,” Ben Hart explained, claiming he paid Madi’s mother a lump sum of $2 million upfront in addition to paying $18,000 per month in child support and alimony. He also claimed he paid for health insurance, out-of-pocket medical costs and $600,000 for college for Madi and her three siblings.
“In all, I paid out about $5 million to my ex-wife to cover costs for her and the kids … in other words, I was not a deadbeat dad at all,” Ben Hart added.
Hart also claimed he “saw the kids all the time,” when he was in La Grange, Illinois, something Madi Hart disputed in yet another Tik Tok she posted Sunday night in response to her father.
@madihart_soccer Replying to @B. ♬ original sound – Madi Hart
“He said he lived down the street from us, that’s not true, or like if he did it was only for a few months maybe, but, actually for most of my childhood he lived in Florida with his new wife. (RELATED: Biden Admin Keeps Softening TikTok Stance As Company’s Influence Campaign Grows)
Madi also called her father “unhinged and delusional” and said, “he’s just like a weird guy.”
Madi did admit that he gave her some money growing up and said, “I honestly don’t know the nitty gritty of the financial situation. I really really don’t. But I do know that several times I’ve asked him for financial help with medical expenses, like especially like in college and he wouldn’t help me so that’s what I was referring to in my video when I was like he wouldn’t pay some of my medical bills.”
“Bottom line is this guy was a completely absent father, completely absent father. He’s like ‘I was just a bike ride away from those kids’ and it’s like not once did any of us ever ever take a bike ride to his house. I don’t think I’ve ever been in his house,” she added.
Welcome to the age of the internet where intensely personal conflicts and family drama play out for literally the entire world to see. Regardless of who’s side you believe in this he-said, she-said, both of these people are, to a degree, trying to leverage their fractured personal relationship into internet clout. Which is messed up on so many levels.
Madi Hart, who her father claimed is a “Hollywood screenwriter,” claims to be a comedian and a writer, so her outburst likely serves her purposes of continuing to build a brand and attract more followers to her impressive TikTok platform, where she boasts over 70,000 followers.
Ben, meanwhile, is obviously not shy to the limelight. You don’t take up breakdancing in your 60s and go on Good Morning America to showcase your skills if you’re not looking for a little bit of attention.
The saga is a uniquely 21st century look at what family life looks like in a country and a culture that places more value on likes and retweets than it does on strong family ties. No matter who is in the right or wrong here, it’s a shame to see them airing out their dirty laundry like this.