A breakdancing dad clad in a Bitcoin shirt took to X to correct claims his TikTok comedian daughter made about him abandoning her family and not paying for her medical bills, a story that's captivated the internet now for almost a week.
"What's a piece of trauma that you have that's funny?" TikToker Madi Hart posted last week, kicking off the story.
"I'll go first. 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 said. "And he got really good, he like blew up. Like, he became like a D-list celebrity status like viral breakdancer. He became like the oldest actively competing breakdancer in the world."
Hart went on to say that her father made an appearance on Good Morning America, was interviewed by the Washington Post, and danced with Paula Abdul before saying, "this guy wouldn't pay my medical bills."
"The worst part? Dammit he's good. He should not be able to move his body like that," she added.
Hart continued: "There was no split custody or anything, like he just like left four kids to do that. He may not have paid for some of my medical bills growing up but he did give me this breakdancing merchandise."
@madihart_soccer plz dont bully him btw u just have to laugh!! #storytime #anxiousattachment #therapytiktok #daddyissues #storytimes ♬ original sound - Madi Hart
Her father, however, wanted to tell his side of the story—and he did just that in a 10-minute video posted to X, where he donned a black and gold Bitcoin shirt.
"I wake up at 6 a.m. to do some work. I get my coffee, I sit down, I open my computer, and what am I greeted with?" the father, Ben Hart, said on Sunday. "Well, hundreds of comments calling me a deadbeat dad, a child abandoner, and all manner of other insults."
"Frankly, I was pretty chagrined with what I heard to say the least," he said of the TikTok, adding that "the more I watch this video, the more I like it—well, I like about 98% of it."
He said that he understood how a divorce could look like abandonment to a five-year-old, but that there was "no abandonment, just a divorce."
On the allegation of not paying medical bills, Hart said "that's just not correct," adding that his ex-wife received a $2 million lump sum upfront; $18,000 per month in child support and alimony (later reduced to $12,000); and that he paid for health insurance and out-of-pocket medical costs; as well as put $600,000 in the children's college fund.
"In other words, I was not a deadbeat dad at all, and by the way, Madi did not say that in her video," he said. "But a lot of the comments assume that and say that. Now of course, there was no way for Madi to know how much I was paying because she was a kid, this wasn't something I talked about."
He also added that he didn't divorce his ex-wife to start a career in breakdancing, but that he already had a career in advertising and didn't take up breakdancing until six years after the divorce as a way to get in shape.
"At first I really did not like Madi's video at all, but I was biased by all the negative comments that I was greeted with at six a.m. in the morning in my social media feed," he said. "But the more I watch the video, the more I like it, and her video is certainly true from her perspective even though a few details are off."
The video, though, garnered the attention of billionaire Elon Musk, who remarked: "You are awesome."
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