Rory Feek’s Daughter Hopie Reveals He’s Not Her Biological Father, Calls Out Dad’s Reaction

After Hopie shared last week that she took a DNA test that revealed Rory isn’t her biological dad, Rory posted a lengthy blog post in response, in which he detailed his reaction, while also diving into the family’s history — which did not go over well with Hopie.

Rory raised Hopie and her older sister, Heidi, after he split from their mother. In his blog post, Rory shared details about his ex, which led Hopie to slam her dad on Instagram.

Now, with Hopie publicly calling out Rory, it appears the family is getting into a public feud for the second time. Rory got into a dispute with Hopie and Heidi just last September over the sisters’ concerns about their youngest sister, Indiana, 10, whom Rory shared with his late wife, Joey Feek.

Read on to see how the latest drama went down.

In a video shared to her Instagram on February 8, Hopie publicly revealed that she had taken a 23andMe DNA test that revealed Rory is not her biological father. She said her real father is a man she referred to as “B.C.”

“Most of you know me through my family and their story. I’ve always felt a little bit different and now I know why. So I took a 23andMe test and I got the results I never knew I needed. Turns out, this is my dad,” Hopie said, before showing a photo of herself smiling next to an older man. “Not the one that everyone knows, and his name is B.C. And over the last six months, him and I have gotten really close and gotten to know each other. And it’s so strange because we’re so much alike.”

She shared that she found B.C. on social media. “Within 24 hours of finding him and messaging him on Facebook, he was here at my doorstep just to give me a hug and to meet me,” Hopie recalled, adding, “I’ve never experienced unconditional love like that before. There’s so much more love to my story than I ever thought there was.”

Hopie went on to share that she also “reconnected” with her mom in the past year.

“She’s freaking awesome. And learned just how much she loves me and how much she wanted to be a part of my life but never really could,” she said. “To a dad who I never realized I had, who just immediately loved me and is so excited to call me his daughter. And that is what he calls me, daughter.”

“I know that you guys probably have a lot of questions, and I did too and I still do,” Hopie added. “I’m just really grateful for all of this and the people, the new people I have in my life and the new family that love me for who I am.”

A few days after Hopie posted her Instagram video, Rory shared a post on his blog, which he titled “a different dad.” In the lengthy post, the country singer recalled learning the news that he’s not Hopie’s biological father, before he then dove into his past relationship with his ex-wife, specifically when Hopie was born.

“On Thursday morning I was sitting in the kitchen, Rebecca was making breakfast and Indy was getting dressed for the day, and my phone rang. When I picked it up, I saw my middle daughter Hopie’s name… I can’t tell you the last time she called me,” he began.

“I had been praying that she, or Heidi would call. Many times, ” continued Rory, who is a member of Homestead Heritage, an “agrarian and craft-based intentional Christian community,” that many online have accused of being a cult. “And strangely, earlier that morning in particular. I hadn’t seen either of the girls in a year and they’d not spoken much more than a sentence at a time to me in more than two. So to see Hopie’s name come up on my phone felt like an answer to prayer.”

Rory said he and Heidi sat down for a conversation together for the first time in “two and a half” years” on a bench where his ex-wife, Joey Feek, is buried.

“I had no idea what she wanted to talk with me about. And honestly, it didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to see her,” he recalled. “To have the opportunity to look into her eyes and her look into mine, with hopes that she might realize that we aren’t enemies. And that I love her deeply.”

“And looking back now, I can’t help but think my wish came true. Although in a way that I never expected,” he wrote.

Rory recalled Hopie relaying the news of her DNA test to him, admitting that he “was not expecting to hear that,” but said he wasn’t completely “surprise[d].”

“‘I didn’t know’ I told her, and I didn’t. ‘But in another way Hopie, it doesn’t completely surprise me,'” he wrote.

Rory went on to detail what allegedly went down before Hopie was born, writing that he recalled the “memory” with Hopie during their conversation.

According to Rory, when he returned from a six-month deployment with the Marines in 1988, he and his ex-wife, Hopie’s mother, “weren’t doing well,” but shortly after, she found out she was pregnant. He said when Hopie was born, he believed she had arrived “a week or two before her due date,” while the nurse told him the baby was “a week or two past due.”

Rory said he didn’t really think about it again until about a year later when he and his ex-wife divorced, writing that he asked her if Hopie was his daughter.

“I pleaded with her to let me keep both of you girls, but she insisted on taking you. And so it was then that I asked her if you were mine, or if something had happened when I was gone overseas,” he recalled telling Hopie. “She told me again and again that nothing had happened and that yes, you were mine. And that was that.”

“You and her got on a plane and Heidi stayed with me. But we wrote your mom letters and called her, always asking if I could come get you, so you could be with Heidi and I,” he continued. ” And I explained how one day a few months later, your Mom called and said I could come get you. And so I flew to Florida and picked you up and from that moment on, I kept you and I raised you.”

Rory said he told Hopie that while “a part of me knew” Hopie wasn’t his, “I told her I didn’t care.”

“That this news and this blood test doesn’t change anything for me,” he continued, “‘I love you as my daughter and I always will.'”

Meanwhile, Rory then recalled how Hopie and Heidi only allegedly saw their birth mom “twice in all the years” he raised them, before they later connected with their mom after high school, and, again for dinner at his farmhouse.

Now, while reflecting on his conversation with Hopie, Rory said he’s “thankful” he learned the truth, and ultimately that he was given the “chance to let Hopie know how much I love her.”

However, he wrote that he’s “disappointed and sad that it took three decades to learn this. But the truth is…I mostly hurt for Hopie.”

“Hopie has such a tender heart, filled with child-like wonder and light, even in the darkest of days. It’s heartbreaking that she has had to deal with such an incredible amount of pain and loss in her relatively short life,” Rory wrote. “Way more I think than most people do in a lifetime. This is going to be hard for her I know. Making sense of something that’s hard to make sense of. Finding out that who you were, and also ‘whose’ you were, is not what you’ve been led to believe your whole life.”

“And I also hurt for Hopie’s Mom. Knowing that she carried that secret around all these years. I can only imagine how hard that was, and how scary it must have been for her to finally tell the truth,” he added. “All these years later, I don’t fault her Mom now for keeping this from Hopie, and from me. I’m sure she had her reasons. She was young and I’d like to think did the best she could with what she had and who she was at the time.”

Later on Tuesday, Hopie took to Instagram to address her father’s blog post, calling it “extremely disappointing.”

“When I had the conversation with Rory, my one request was for him to be kind and not shame my mom. Today, he shared her private history in his blog, which is extremely disappointing,” she wrote in a statement.

“I shared my story because I couldn’t keep the secret all to myself anymore,” she 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).”

Hopie then recalled her father’s alleged reaction to when she came out as bisexual and claimed he “convinced” her to allow him to include the information in his 2018 memoir Once Upon a Farm.

“When I privately came out to him as bisexual, he was hateful and judgmental. Later, he convinced me to let him write about it in his book. I regret that,” she wrote. “When his book came out, he had massive support and I had the opposite. More hate from his fans. The things he wrote in that chapter still hurt.”

Her next slide in her Instagram post included an audio clip from Rory narrating a chapter in his book, in which he recalled how he reacted to Hopie telling him about her sexuality. Rory admitted that he was judgmental, citing his Christian beliefs, and also added he was going to “need to protect” his daughter Indiana “from sin.”

“With everything going on right now, this clip made a lot of sense. He was already trying to keep me from Indy,” Hopie wrote, referring to her and her sister Heidi’s claims that Rory cut them off from contacting their 10-year-old sister, and put her in harms way. “It’s like he was already trying to push me out of his life.”

As she continued her message, Hopie then accused Rory of “us[ing] my story to sell his books.”

“From now on, I just wish my stories could be my own to tell and share,” she continued. “I want to move forward and find happiness with the people who love me, far away from this online hate.”

She captioned her post, “My intention has never been to hurt anyone with this new information. I just needed to get it out. This is the last I’m going to say about it…for now. Please respect my privacy.”