Rory Feek’s Daughter Says He Used Her Story to ‘Sell His Books’

Hopie Feek says she’s “extremely” disappointed by Rory Feek‘s new blog post, which he wrote in response to her announcement that he is not her biological father.

“My one request was for him to be kind and not shame my mom,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday (Feb. 11.) “Today, he shared her private history in his blog, which is extremely disappointing.”

That statement is in response to Feek’s post from the same day, where he said that Hopie’s announcement didn’t come as a complete surprise to him. He also shared some of the details around Hopie’s conception and birth timeline, by way of explaining why he suspected his then-wife might have been involved with another man around that time.

Read More: Rory Feek’s Daughter Hopie Reveals He’s Not Her Biological Dad

“I shared my story because I couldn’t keep the secret all to myself anymore,” Hopie continued. “I’m really not a public person, but because Rory is, my private life becomes content for his fans (who are often unkind online.)”

• Feek raised three daughters: 36-year-old Hopie, her 38-year-old older sister Heidi and their young sister Indiana, who will turn 11 years old this month.
• Hopie and Heidi’s mother is Tamara Gilmer, who did not raise them, but Hopie’s post says she and Heidi have reconnected with their mom in adulthood.
• Feek shares Indiana with his late wife and Joey + Rory duet partner Joey Feek, who died after a cancer battle in 2016. He married a schoolteacher named Rebecca last summer.

Read More: Rory Feek: Daughter’s Paternity Test Results Aren’t Surprising

It’s not the first time that Hopie’s personal life has become fodder for Feek’s fanbase. Her response contains some frustration over what she describes as a longstanding pattern of Feek exploiting her life experiences to augment his own platform and celebrity.

“When I privately came out to him as bisexual, he was hateful and judgmental,” she remembers. “Later, he convinced me to let him write about it in his book. I regret that.”

She says she received hate and criticism from Feek’s fanbase after his 2017 memoir This Life I Live came out, and that the things he said about her in the book “still hurt.”

“Now, looking back on it, I feel like he just used my story to sell his books,” Hopie continues. “From now on, I just wish my stories could be my own to tell and share. I want to move forward and find happiness with the people who love me, far away from this online hate.”

She also posted a snippet of Feek’s audiobook — read by Feek — from the chapter in which he describes her coming out to him and how he wrestled to reconcile her sexuality with his Christian faith. It that clip, he remembers thinking about his then-two-year-old daughter Indiana and how he would need to “protect the baby more than ever from sin.”

He also remembers two unspoken questions coming up: Whether he would still love Hopie despite her bisexuality, and whether he would allow her to be around her little sister.

Feek eventually found his way to acceptance, but as the years went by, Hopie and Heidi found themselves in an increasingly fraught relationship with their dad. As the feud escalated, he began progressively limiting contact between Indiana and his older daughters, eventually blocking them from seeing her at all.

“With everything going on right now, this clip made a lot of sense,” Hopie wrote as she shared the audio. “He was already trying to keep me from Indy. It’s like he was already trying to push me out of his life.”