I want to apologize in advance to anyone that came here for the regular Philip DeFranco Show
where I talk about five or whatever topics a day.
So to start things off, I am not a fan of making this video today,
and I apologize to anyone that came here expecting the Philip DeFranco Show
where I talk about 3 to 8 topics, and I give my opinions.
But now, I am being forced to go further in on a story I've talked about this week
because now someone's trying to blame me and even link me to the reason
why a woman was almost run off the road.
I wish I was kidding, but we are living in bizarro world this week.
So if you're coming in blind, you haven't seen my videos this week,
We have talked about a channel by the name of DaddyOFive.
It's a family channel featuring mum, dad, and five kids, and it shows their crazy antics.
But then they came under fire for a now removed video called "INK PRANK!"
And it showed the parents screaming and cursing at and blaming the children
for something they know they didn't do.
CHILD: "I DIDN'T DO THAT!"
MOTHER: "YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU DID!"
CHILD: "I SWEAR TO GOD I DIDN'T DO THAT!"
[Unintelligible screaming]
Kids break down, they cry, there's some outrage, the family makes a video defending their actions.
And to over summarize, they say, "We're just a weird, different family."
"There's no abuse. Kids, right, there's no abuse? No abuse."
FATHER: "Are you guys okay?"
KIDS: "Yeah."
FATHER: "Are you upset?"
KIDS: "No."
FATHER: "It's just a prank."
KIDS: "It's just a prank."
But then people start digging deeper on the channel, and they find
more and more instances of the kids crying and seeming in distress.
[loud screaming]
One of the kids in particular, Cody, being pushed by his dad:
[harsh bang]
punched by his dad,
[hard punch]
Constantly face planted by what now turns out to be his step-brother.
[loud bump and crying]
They stuck with, "There is no abuse here. CPS has even been here in the past,
"and they have dismissed it. We're all good."
Also, on that note, Child Protective Services in Maryland was contacted.
Reportedly, they said they were "unaware of the videos,"
"and they did not confirm or deny whether the agency would conduct an investigation of the parents."
Which by the way since we're talking about videos that we have seen, videos we haven't seen, upon looking further into the channel.
A video that is now deleted, but someone saved before it got deleted, because this is the internet
that has popped up and it shows Mike playing a game with the kids,
and the rules are simple:
FATHER: "Now you gotta flip the bottle and land it"
"Now if it lands, you're safe."
"Now if it don't[sic] land, the other person gets to slap you in the face."
It's probably just a joke or prank, right?
"And you know you don't hit girls, but she's your sister -- she don't count"
[slaps violently] FATHER: "OH MY GOD!"
[girl starts crying]
Having kids hit each other for views...
You fucking- anyway
Then last night a lot happened
The mother and father of the channel, Mike and Heather, did an interview.
And they say a few interesting things.
They say don't necessarily fake their videos. It's exaggerated, though.
MIKE: "They are a little exaggerated."
"And they are edited to make it look like it's a lot worse than it is."
Heather going a little further in regards to Cody:
HEATHER: "Cody is going to grow up to be an actor."
"Um, I'm pretty sure of that."
"But some of the videos, his reactions are one hundred percent real and some of them..."
"They're exaggerated and he- he puts on a show."
And remember yesterday when we talked about people angry that they didn't take their son Cody to Disneyland because,
according to the mom,
HEATHER: "He put poop everywhere!"
And to that I mentioned that there was medical literature and there were
psychologists that said that people that suffer from PTSD, that have suffered abuse, they are more inclined to doing anything like that
Well this is how Mike responded:
MIKE: "That's one of those things right there that I kept private and"
"Didn't want to tell everybody because Cody was embarrassed, but I feel like I have to say it now."
"Cody, if you watch the video..."
"There is no feces on the wall. What happened was the toilet overflowed."
"Like, I mean, it happens with five kids in the house *right* if the toilet overflowed, so I said that,"
"instead of saying the real issue why he didn't go to Disneyland, which he was really embarrassed about,"
"and he doesn't want anyone to know."
So a few things: One, you say that you didn't want to share something because you didn't want to embarrass your son
But you put out a video where you claimed that your child who --
Potentially his friends watch these videos -- he put out a video that
He's putting poop around his house as if that's not embarrassing,
as if so much of what you put out on your child is not embarrassing.
Also, I was responding to what your wife said: "He put poop everywhere!" - and your response took it to the next level of poop
smearing on walls, which is a very oddly specific thing to upgrade to, about a situation that supposedly never happened
[And] then you tell a story about how a toilet overflowed and that you can't talk about the real reason cuz it's embarrassing
And then later you go on to say that with just so many kids you worried that he's just going to run off
That at least makes sense -- all the other stuff makes no sense to me.
Then one question about a counselor,
They said that Cody actually does go to a counselor.
"We actually have a family counselor."
"We actually -- Cody does go to counseling and and we went to counseling as a family,"
"Uh, ironically we have."
Which I found odd because most counselors will be able to help parents on how to deal with the kid.
But in the same video the mom says this about Cody:
"I wish he would behave himself and act like a normal child."
"Normal kids have bad behaviors... Cody has..."
"...something else."
"Yeah."
"I don't know what the hell 'else' is."
"Lord knows; he's crazy..."
"...Crazy ginger snap."
Then when Mike was questioning about why did you push your kid in that one video...
Yes, that one. He responded:
"I didn't -- I did not mean to like -- that wasn't..."
"I didn't mean for him to hit the bookcase. What happened was, he ran at me..."
"And I kind of like a reflex -- like -- pushed him off a little bit, but it wasn't a push to force, it wasn't a push to hurt him."
"A-a-and it wasn't nothing like what people are calling it. It wasn't nothing like that."
Which is of course understandable,
You have to push the smallest child in the world, ever... he's a threat!
And then when the family is asked one of the most softball questions in the world,
(paraphrasing:) Philip DeFranco created somewhat of a montage of potential abuse moments, are you open to making a best, like, happy moments video?
To which Mike responds: Yeah, but it might be hard because there's just so much.
And this is a key point -- there are a lot of lessons we learned from this whole story
But if I can get one thing across to people: happy times do not negate abusive or violent ones
That's like saying if Joe Blow punches his wife in the face, calls her slurs,
But it's only like five, ten, percent of the time. The other ninety percent of time, it's just -- it's good. He's sweet. He cares. He apologizes.
No, the good times do not negate the abuse: that is a very important thing to know.
And like anyone who's been in one of those situations can tell you, anyone who's ever witnessed can tell you:
This situation just continues and continues and continues -- it's a cycle.
Or to put it in more relative terms, Disneyland does not negate...
And then even later in the night the parents from the DaddyOFive channel put out a video,
It's called "Family Destroyed Over False Accusations."
And in it they say that they don't just exaggerate the videos; the videos are fake.
"I don't care anymore. The videos are fake."
"They're fake."
"They're over-exaggerated. Some videos are scripted. Some video-- I mean -- they're just played out."
Although to this obviously the response now is going to be:
"Okay, I hear what you're saying, but how is *this* fake?"
"Oh my God!"
People are gonna ask how is that fake or scripted? You organized and put out a video of your kids hitting each other.
These are defenseless minors.
And then he goes on to say that he's even kind of dropped hints:
"I put in the video description 'for entertainment purposes only'."
"I categorized the videos as 'entertainment or comedy'."
Something that I know -- I've even used keywords a few times. I've used the word 'fake' in the key words and stuff a few times.
Although to this statement people pointed out, well you've actually
Included "real freak out video" in your tags as well.
As far as why he said he didn't come out to say these videos were fake sooner
He said he was scared
I never really came out and said we were fake, because I was scared to kill our YouTube channel, that kind of thing
kills a YouTube channel and my kids love the YouTube channel
Now maybe I should have came out sooner and said that they were faked or something, but like I just said
My kids love this youTube and I did it for them, and I'm taking all this hate right now for them
They also said they're going to change up their style in future videos and we're going to continue to make videos
"And we're going to continue to make videos"
"If we're able" "If we're able"
"To continue making videos, we might change up our style."
Then the dad apologises:
"Look, we just want to say sorry..."
"...sorry if we let anybody down."
"I'm sorry if we hurt anybody."
"I'm sorry... All this got so out of hand."
Now [if] the video ended right there, and we took Mike at his word,
I'd go "wow!"
Came out with the truth; acknowledged what was wrong
Said he was gonna change things in the future; and apologize[d]
Except-- where I just cut that apology clip, uh H-he goes on:
"I'm sorry..."
"All this got so out of hand."
"It would had never got this out of hand if it wasn't for that 'DeFranco guy'."
"Starting all of this, doing all of this to my family."
"He's responsible for this. Yes, we did the videos. Yes, I own up to everythink[sic] in the videos -- I own up to it."
"They're fake."
What?! "Philip Defranco is respo-"
I'm as responsible as a security camera in a gas station filming a robbery.
Michael, Heather -- you are the ones -- you can say the kids wanted a YouTube channel
You are the ones who filmed and put out your children being verbally berated
"You tell me what you did!"
"I swear to God -- I didn't do it!"
"There's ink all over your carpet!"
Being scared, being visibly distressed and asking you to leave them alone:
"I want everybody to leave me alone! I just want to be left alone so I can calm down."
And that's not even including the moments where you push your children:
Where you punch your children because they're messing with the video:
Where the older step-brother face-plants a child:
Let's just say we take you at your word, and you're not just backpedaling here.
That it is fake, it is scripted -- maybe just exaggerated sometimes.
For many people, that might even be more concerning.
Because we already see that you incentivize the kids to do this so they get more views
"I'll get you a PlayStation 4 if you get a million views."
But that also means you script, and plan out videos, and monetize, and profit off of this kid getting thrown around.
Which page in the script involved a step-brother punching Cody in the head?
[Where] He's being pinned on the ground, and he got kicked in the crotch -- was that just kind of an ad lib thing?
Are they method actors?
The mental gymnastics it takes to blame me; t-to say that I am attacking your family by reporting on this story
And you don't see that you are one hundred percent the reason for this situation
Yeah, I'm going to call you simone Biles
Also in advance, I apologize to Simone Biles for that comparison.
You're trying to pin death threats on me, on your wife and potentially being driven off the road
"Right now we are under severe attack..."
"...by all kinds of Media, by this 'DeFranco guy'."
"And because of that video. We now have real danger coming our way."
"Somebody tried to run my wife off the road with the kids in the car!" (not cool)
"We got death threats coming to us and everything."
"My kids are terrified, they can't go outside, they can't..."
And you try to blame me, but this is just the world's reaction to seeing children in distress.
Little, defenseless children -- Not adult actors on one of those fake prank channels, or fake reality channels.
Children being handled emotionally and physically in a way that shocked the world
and you can't-you can't be surprised that the world would have an adverse reaction?
But based off your last video, I don't think you're ever really going to see that, and that disappoints me.
Now as far as "why now, why-why- do Mike and Heather come clean now and also 'apologize'?".
Well since these stories blew up over the past two days, a woman has come forward claiming to be Cody and Emma's biological mother.
The woman's name is Rose Hall
She and her sister, Crystal Reynolds, have been reaching out to people talking about the story.
They were part of a 30-plus minute interview last night, and I want to say before we move forward:
These are allegations.
It is very important whether you have closed the door on Mike,
Or you've closed the door on me,
Understand that these are allegations.
[So], according to Crystal Reynolds, Mike Martin (DaddyOFive) left back in 2008 when Cody was 1, and Emma was almost 3,
My sister took care of those kids by herself with no money or help from him for almost 7 years
She gave him another chance and hunted him down to be a dad.
Rose was a little overwhelmed and asked Mike if he could visit.
While Cody was visiting, Mike's wife forged papers saying my sister gave him custody of Cody.
Two years later, after Emma visited for Thanksgiving, they removed Emma, saying there was abuse that was unfounded.
We went to court and got a judge that was prejudiced against women with bipolar, and wouldn't even look at our evidence that Mike was unstable and abusive - and gave him the kids.
In August, a friend of ours came across their videos and told us about them.
"We contacted the police immediately. They did a report here and send it to Maryland."
[which] she included the document. I'm showing the redacted version because I don't want to share addresses and personal information.
"And Maryland told us it was corporal[sic] punishment."
"They refuse to do anything even though we talked to doctors and other professionals who say it is clearly abuse of all kinds."
"We are just so worried - who knows what kind of damage this is doing."
Also from that statement, I redacted certain parts that I feel share too much about the children and what they're going through.
It's something that's not shared on camera and doesn't have to do with the parents.
Also in the actual video, they say that Mike convinced his daughter, Emma, to lie and say that the mother abused her.
That Mike lied to the judge and cops.
They also alleged that Mike used documents that were supposed to be confidential,
specifically about how the mother, when she was born, they believed she was going to be brain-damaged.
Documents that also reveal that she's bipolar and has a learning disorder.
She also goes on to allege that Mike has another ex-wife and he controlled and abused her son.
I've reached out to Mike Martin to see if he wants to respond to these allegations.
As of the recording this video, he has not responded.
And a big thing I do want to note here is that while this is a connected situation, these are separate situations.
This could set up more insight into a person's character.
It's also important to understand that these are allegations.
It's important to not fully jump to conclusions, which is why -- the main reason -- that the story has blown up is because there is so much video evidence
And that's where I'm going to leave this.
I know there are going to be some people out there that do still blindly blame me, and it's fine.
You're gonna hate, you're going to go away. I don't want someone with your mental capacity here.
This is still an incredibly odd and very important story.
And I do not regret one bit, shining a light on this story, talking about this story.
Because I, like many others, saw children in distress, children being handled, like I-
Ugh!
I don't want to say what I would do, out of fear I would implicate myself in the future.
So that's where I'm going to end this video today.
But! With that said, of course as always, my name is Philip DeFranco.
You've just been Phill'd in.
I love your faces, and I'll see you tomorrow!