In a blog post published Saturday (Aug. 31), Rory Feek offered a response to his oldest daughter Heidi’s claims that 10-year-old Indiana — Feek’s youngest daughter — is unsafe in his care.

“Although Heidi has been posting hurtful stuff online for months, actually for two years now, I have never responded. Not once,” he writes.

“Not because I don’t care, or because what she and they’ve been saying is true. And not because it doesn’t hurt me, because it does. The things she’s shared have broken my heart.”

He goes on to say that until now, he’s chosen not to respond publicly because he doesn’t wish to hurt his two older daughters, Heidi and her sister Hopie.

“It mostly makes me want to love them more,” he adds.

Heidi spoke exclusively to Taste of Country about her concerns in an article published last Thursday (Aug. 29).

• At that time, she said she and Hopie were pursuing legal action against their father.
• She said Rory cut them off from Indiana after refusing their requests for family counseling.
• She also said she and Hopie grew more concerned as they learned more about Rory Feek’s ties to a community called Homestead Heritage.

The father of three says that Indiana has “never been more loved or better cared for than she is right now,” emphasizing that his new wife, Rebecca, is bringing an important new maternal presence that has been lacking in Indiana’s life since her mother Joey died in 2016.

What Has Rory Feek Said About Homestead Heritage?

In his response, Feek counters implications that he and his new wife Rebecca have “joined a cult.”

“If you call ‘Following a man who lived two thousand years ago who said he was the Savior of the world’ being in a cult … then every Christian you know or have ever met is part of a cult,” he states. “I have given my life to Christ and am, for the first time, doing my best to pick up my cross daily and carry it, even if it costs me everything.”

But he refutes any suspicions that the term “cult” applies to Homestead Heritage.

“Those folks are just living in a way that other people don’t like or understand,” he goes on to say, “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.”

Feek says that his relationship with Homestead Heritage dates back to a decade ago, when his late wife Joey began purchasing essential oils from a family who lived in that community. He said that his relationship with the group has grown closer in recent years, and that they share similar values, including opting for home birth and home education for children, and living off the land as much as possible.

He did not clarify whether or not he has joined Homestead Heritage via baptism.

What Is Rory Feek’s Response to Taste of Country’s Article?

• In Taste of Country’s article, two people shared personal stories of sexual abuse, lack of physical health care and lack of mental health care.
  • In his response, Feek acknowledges that “bad apples” exist in every community, but that Homestead’s mission is overwhelmingly positive. “If you visit Homestead Heritage in Texas or Greycliff in Montana, or the folks in Idaho or any of the small communities that are popping up, what you’re going to find is a bunch of people who have learned how to truly love each other in community,” he states.
• Feek writes, “What saddens me most about the accusations against [Homestead Heritage and specifically Brian and Elizah Brandstadt] the most is that no one reached out to ask me about them or anyone else.”
  • Taste of Country reached Feek’s team a month before this article published, and he declined to comment.
• Homestead Heritage also responded to Taste of Country’s article in a blog post.

What Is Rory Feek Saying About His Family Estrangement? How is Heidi Responding?

• Feek writes that Heidi and Hopie could see their younger sister “anytime,” but that he no longer allows Indiana to spend the night at their houses due to a clash in values.
  • On her Instagram, Heidi shared a screenshot of a string of unanswered texts to her father in which she requests to call or see Indiana.
  • She tells Taste of Country that two years ago, she and her husband Dillon visited Feek’s house for a conversation that turned heated.
  • She says that topics of conflict included Feek’s requests that Heidi “give him grandchildren to support ‘his legacy'” and him laughing at her for “pursuing a career on Twitch.”
  • “It resulted in [Feek] telling us to leave and ‘don’t plan on coming back anytime soon,'” she says, adding that after that, she only returned to the house three more times: Once for Indiana’s ninth birthday party, once to pick her up and take her out to dinner and once to attend her father’s Homestead Festival earlier this year.
• Feek also says that Heidi and Hopie are free to call or receive phone calls from Indiana.
  • Heidi says that the last time she spoke to Indiana on the phone was in June, and that she “cried” as Feek told her it was time to end the call. “After that he stopped answering my texts and phone calls,” she claims.
• Feek says that in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it became increasingly clear that he and his older daughters have differing world views. His conservative Christian beliefs inform the way he chooses to live his life, he explains, and Heidi and Hopie believe differently. “It’s their life, and they have every right to live it as they wish,” he says.
• However, he says that he started decreasing contact between his older daughter and Indiana because they were exposing her to movies and music that he didn’t approve of. “Heidi doesn’t think she has to respect my wishes when it comes to her little sister,” he writes.
  • Heidi says she stopped letting Indiana watch movies after her dad put that rule in place, but says she and Dillon did let her listen to Disney songs, “and the occasional Whitney Houston as her mother loved Whitney.”
• In his blog post, Feek mentions that Heidi and Hopie reconnected with their birth mother, Tamara Gilmer, within the last few years — a reunion that he’s happy they had. However, he says Gilmer unfairly placed the blame on him for her absence in their lives as children.
• “I hope someday they give me the opportunity to share my side of the 20 years that I raised them on my own, rather than just accuse me of something without any chance to respond,” he writes.
  • “He has written two books, countless blog posts, articles, a documentary, a TV show and YouTube videos where he’s talked about raising us,” Heidi counters. “He has spent many hours discounting our experiences and rewriting the stories to fit his narrative and make himself look good. We have asked him for two years to go to family therapy with us. He refuses.”

Carena Liptak is an Associate Editor and staff writer at Taste of Country. She specializes in breaking country music news, interviews and lists. In particular, she’s got a soft spot for sad songs — check out her roundup of the 50 Saddest Country Songs of All Time!