The Truth Kept from Podcast Viewers

Can you believe Megyn Kelly received (and we believe read and watched) an open letter from my brother and me, and video telling our story of Mike Rinder and what we think of our father—and she said nothing about what we have to say?

During a two-hour podcast, Mike Rinder told disparaging lies and defamatory statements about our mother, whom he violently abused. Yet not a word was said about the facts we sent. We covered in our letter that he will blame others for his bad parenting—and he did it again on the podcast.

You can read our open letter here:

Open Letter to Mike Rinder

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Download PDF • 240KB

You can view the video statements from me and from Ben here:

Insinuating that our mother was a bad mom is so disgusting and infuriating. She was, and still is, always there for us and has never turned her back on us like Mike did. She never treated us like a “distraction” like Mike did, and never thought of us as “specimens” or “puppets” or scum like he did and still does. Megyn asked “what kind of mother” would do what Mike falsely accuses her of. I ask what kind of media host defames a woman she’s never met and knows nothing about and takes it from a former husband who physically assaulted her? I was there, you weren’t.

I thought Megyn Kelly would care more, as she puts herself out there as a voice against abuse. And yet here she is supporting a man who abused his wife, and she is giving him a platform to continue to denigrate and abuse us, his children, and our family, friends and our beliefs.

As we are THE children he talks about, who better to speak up in reply? Mike Rinder, as usual, gave the audience a grossly one-sided view. Our open letter and videos speak for themselves. They give the real truth about Mike Rinder and the abusive man and father he is.

Taryn

Justice4mom

My Father’s Abuse And The Emotional Toll It Took

Despite a decade of harassment from my father, the man who physically assaulted my mother, I have stood fast in speaking the truth and exposing his abuse. I am reposting this blog as a reminder of all of the damage this man, Mike Rinder, has done to his own family.

IT’S TIME TO HEAR FROM ME, MY MOTHER, AND MY MOTHER-IN-LAW ABOUT THE REAL MIKE RINDER

As you know, my campaign is Justice4Mom. That’s because my mom was abused by my father, Mike Rinder, the man behind Leah Remini’s A&E show. There’s never, ever a reason to make it okay to hurt a woman.

Harassing my brother

After my brother got diagnosed with melanoma, he was given a few years to live. My Mom and I were devastated. Your world goes upside down. So, my mom went to go see my dad, Mike Rinder. They had been married for over 30 years, and though he had deserted the family, she felt it important to tell him about his son. She didn’t ever get to tell him. He found out otherwise. He never answered her communications.

By this time, Benjamin had already gone through numerous surgeries and intensive radiation treatment. Sick as a dog, though, but on the mend. So, when we hear that Mike is there harassing my brother. He took a bunch of people he knows my brother doesn’t like and that he despises. He goes there to make it look like he loves his son, with a video camera, to make it look like he cares. Any father that would care would have checked on him.

No, he marches in with a video camera and thugs. He had to be thrown out by the police. He’s crossed the line. Mike pulls this stunt for a photo op when my brother is almost dead. This jerk, who’s supposed to be his father, is doing this.

We called up Andrew (my uncle), and we said we were going to see Mike as a family. We need to go see him and tell him to stop that. Just knock it off. We don’t want anything from him. We were happy. You can have your life. But when you come and harass my brother—it pissed me off. He’s already deserted us. He’s already treated her like crap her whole life.

“Stop it! Stop it! You’re killing me!”

We were going down Gulf to Bay. We didn’t know where he lived. I was like: “Oh, my God! There he is! He’s standing in the parking lot!”

So, my mom goes straight up to him. The next thing you know, I mean literally within split seconds, he’s got her hands in a vice grip. Her skinny arms. He’s got her hand, and he is obviously grabbing her because she’s yelling, “Stop it! You’re hurting me!”

And he’s holding tight. He’s a big guy. And she’s saying like, “Stop it! You’re hurting me! You’re hurting me!” And then he pinned her, so she couldn’t move and then pulled her arms down. She started hearing her bones cracking, and I was freaking out. And she started screaming, “Stop it! Stop it! You’re killing me!”

And this was right in front of me. I was in shock. He’s an animal. He’s not a person. I then and there decided I didn’t need this guy. I don’t need him in my life. I don’t need him beating up my Mom. And I don’t need him harassing my brother.

She is permanently damaged

Mom is still in pain every day. She is damaged permanently. She ended up getting an orthopedic surgeon who helped her. She literally couldn’t even move the joints. It took months just to get the visible damage healed. In the end, what happened is the bone that broke up was sticking into her arm bone. That is why she couldn’t move. Because it was actually broken off and jabbing into her. She was a mess from the amount of pressure and the amount of force that was put on her body.

I tied her shoes for her, made her bed for her, and cut her food for her. I didn’t mind. Not at all. That’s not the point of this. It’s the extent of the damage, the harm, and the physical trauma.

She had shirts made that had slits down the side because she couldn’t move her arm. We had to fold it on top and zip it down so she could wear a shirt. This is not exaggerated. This is literally what her life has been like. She is permanently damaged. Her arm is limp and cannot be raised. She can’t lift anything. She is in pain all the time, like right now. There is a huge problem with circulation. So every single day, she must do ice and hot and ice to force circulation.

She works out how to function minimally. The people she works with do things for her that she can’t do. She has had to have her whole place set up, so it’s lower. She is right-handed and now must operate left-handed. She had to change her whole computer. Her whole life now is left hand. But she’s right-handed. So, if she must write something, she has clipboards she bought that she can hold low and use to write. Otherwise, she can’t hold up a pen. And that’s how it is to this day.

Domestic violence is never okay

He doesn’t care. Never even an “are you ok?” let alone an apology. And yet he still gets paid to go on TV. I don’t understand it. If you agree to pay Mike Rinder, then you agree with men beating women, and you agree with men abusing women.

If anyone else had done even close to what he did to my mother, it would be major news. That guy would be out. But because we are Scientologists, he gets away with abusing us? It’s not right. Domestic violence is never okay. It is never okay to abuse a woman.

We need to take action. We need to be fighting domestic violence and making sure that it gets stomped out, that it doesn’t happen anymore and that he gets justice for this.

Taryn

Justic4Mom

Update on Mom’s Injury

Hi everyone! In addition to a special week hosting my brother and his wife for his birthday, I have been very busy with my job, so have not posted new videos for a bit.

But, as so many people ask about my mom and her well-being, I did not want to delay too much longer in giving an update on how she is doing. Thanks so much for your concern and support, always!

I won’t sugarcoat it: my mom really is injured for life and in some level of pain every single day because of the attack by my father. We’ve done a lot of things to make her as comfortable as possible, but that injury is permanent, so we can only do so much.

So, we just got her a very comprehensive check from a physical therapist to see what else we could do. The physical therapist was very nice and very competent. She did an extensive physical examination of my mom, her arm, the injury, pain levels, mobility, rotation, etc. She was very precise with a ruler and thorough documentation, down to the millimeter.

Based on the exam, she then gave her recommendation to improve the mobility of her arm—but it is minimal. Here is what she concluded, in part: “She continues to have chronic pain with her right shoulder,” which we do know and makes sense because that’s the shoulder that was attacked.

The physical therapist went on to say, “She also has episodes of swelling, spasms, and numbness in her right arm,” which is what my mom experiences because of the nerve damage and the shoulder injury from the attack.

We also consulted her surgeon, Dr. Bell, whom she hasn’t been in touch with since COVID. Dr. Bell is her orthopedic surgeon—he did her surgery and has been her primary doctor. This was great because he was able to see her range of motion and find out how she was doing after some time has passed.

He wrote in his report: “She has never regained full motion in that shoulder,” which is the right shoulder, “and continues to have problems with it, to this day, with daily activities limiting her.” And, “She still has extremely limited motion.” Under the assessment and plan, he wrote: “She may continue to work on stretching and range-of-motion program, but after 12 years, it may be difficult for her to get any significant improvement.” And “This does appear to be directly correlated to the altercation in 2010,” which was when my father, Mike Rinder, abused her.

As you can see by those reports and the fact that she’s still in pain every day, she’s not fully recovered—and is unlikely to.

But that pain is still being negated by the person who did it, my father, Mike Rinder, the person that had his hands on her and caused the bloodshed, the nerve damage, the fractured bone, and the pain that she endures every day of her life. And my father, Mike Rinder, who abused my mother, has still not been brought to justice.

This also got me thinking about just how much domestic violence can reverberate into the future. It’s still affecting our family 12 years later. Each step we can take to inhibit the support of domestic violence creates a safer future for many years to come.

That’s the update on my mom. I thank you for asking how she’s doing and for sending your good wishes and your support. I really appreciate it.

Taryn

Justice4mom