Four For Friday - The Father From Hell

This celebrity couple, who I'll call Mr. and Mrs. M, were A+ list back in the day. Mrs M. was already an A-list celebrity in her own right when she met and married Mr. M. Mr. M. was, to put it mildly, very bad news. Before he met and married Mrs. M, he'd risen from an obscure backwater and made his money from various shady business ventures. Mr. M. got away with his grifting for the usual reasons- because he was an attractive guy with a charismatic personality. He eventually made his way to Hollywood and worked there with moderate success before moving on to other business ventures in New York and Europe, where he met Mrs. M. He reeled her in the same way he charmed the other people he'd ripped off in his past. During their marriage, Mr. M was never faithful to Mrs. M and was also a prolific substance abuser and batterer.

Mrs. M. put up with this behavior for a very long time- and was very good at hiding the abuse. And for a long time, the facade of their happy relationship remained untarnished and eventually, they had a child together. Not long after the birth of their child, Mr. M, beat the crap out of Mrs M. yet again, leaving bruises on her face and body. This particular beating was so bad that the photos taken at their child's christening had to be airbrushed to cover the marks so that they would not be seen in the images released to the press. Mrs. M still, incredibly, continued to hide the brutality of the situation she was living in from many of the people around her. Eventually though, cracks in the facade of this couple's situation began to appear to those around them.

Mr. M's drinking and drugging eventually became more unmanageable and he made several ugly scenes in front of friends and in public. This helped open the eyes of those around the couple and helped them connect the dots about what was happening. Many of them became extremely concerned about the safety of Mrs. M and her child. By this time, their child was in pre-school and was also being exposed to the substance abuse and violence in this family situation. Mr. M was a careless parent when Mrs. M was away working- and would drink/drug himself into a stupor and not watch their child. Several times the child was injured or placed in grave danger because of this neglect. Mr. M also continued to cheat on Mrs. M, and eventually he met a young woman and became totally obsessed with her, giving her lots of money and jewelry.

He even had the nerve to take their child to meet his new girlfriend-- and they partied and eventually passed out, leaving the child unsupervised. This poor child then had a terrible mishap that could have been fatal. This was the final straw for Mrs. M, who finally left Mr. M for good and filed for divorce. One good thing to come out of all this was that Mrs. M. had a close male friend who had secretly carried a torch for her for years. We'll call him Mr. R. Mr. R. had no problem stepping into the void left by Mr. M. and was a good guy who helped Mrs. M. heal from the trauma of her bad marriage. He was also a much-needed father figure to Mrs. M's child. His relationship with them both was a positive and healthy one. Unfortunately, that happiness was short lived when Mrs. M. died unexpectedly. Friends who knew Mrs. M. believe that she must have had a premonition about her own death, because only months before, she had gone to great lengths to establish an ironclad Will and Trust for her child. She did not want Mr. M to have access to any of her money or to be able to harm their child ever again should something happen to her. When Mr. M was told about her Will, he became unglued and threatened to smear Mrs. M's public image.

This guy truly had no soul. He went to court and demanded temporary custody of the child. During the first week he had the child back with him, he drank excessively and in a drunken stupor nearly burned down the house over this poor kid's head. Even though he tried, Mr. M was not able to overturn the financial portion Mrs. M's Trust, which had named Mr. R and Mrs. M's sister as the Trustees of the child's inheritance. Mr. M was enraged about this too and and made a huge scene at a memorial service for Mrs. M. because of that. Their child was now old enough to understand what was going on and experienced the added trauma of seeing this all go down. Really terrible stuff. The legal fight over the child and the money/estate continued for a while longer. The child also continued to suffer while being forced to have visitations with Mr. M., who they were terrified of. Eventually, Mr. M signed an agreement with the Trustees in which he relinquished custody of the child to Mr. R. in exchange for a cash settlement.

Essentially, Mr. M took the money and ran. He went on to marry and divorce several more times and eventually went broke and died a couple of years ago. (Not surprising, but Mr. M rarely had contact with his child after taking the cash settlement.) Mr. R did a great job raising this child, (who is now a young adult) and in spite of everything that happened, this kid is a very solid individual. The best part of the story is that when Mr. M died, no one claimed his remains, so he received a pauper's burial. The child and their friends (who know about the history of this situation) recently found out where Mr. M's grave is located. They've developed a ritual where they visit the grave regularly to spit on it, jump on it, curse at it and dump urine on it. It's become such a past time that they have recently started posting photos of these junkets on social media for their friends. The friends suggest new and disgustingly hilarious things for them to do when visiting the grave.