DaddyOFive Loses Custody of 2 Kids
Mike Martin, the man behind the DaddyOFive YouTube channel, and his second wife Heather lost custody of two of his five children, Cody and Emma, to their biological mother Rose Hall on Friday, Mashable reports. Hall was granted emergency custody after a now-removed video of the Martins making Cody, 9, cry went viral.
DaddyOFive was filled with videos of the pair pranking their children (pranks included Mike convincing Cody he was adopted, and smashing his X-box, for example), though they’ve removed all their videos except for the above apology since the one in question blew up. In that video, which was titled “INVISIBLE INK PRANK ( EPIC FREAKOUT )," Mike and Heather poured ink on Cody’s bedroom floor and accused him of making the mess. They then accused him of lying about it, which ultimately made him cry. After explaining it was a prank, Cody did not react.
YouTuber Philip DeFranco picked the video up and wondered aloud whether several videos on the channel could be considered child abuse. “If they've really been called and CPS have said they did nothing wrong - the pushing, the hitting the screaming, putting the kids in these situations, egging them on - if they saw all that, if they've seen all the other things I would personally label emotional abuse,” he said. His video has more than 3 million views.
On April 28, the Martins appeared on Good Morning America where Heather said “[What] you see on our YouTube channel is not a reflection of who we are. It's not.” Mike elaborated he was “ashamed,” and that "It started out as family fun ... but then it was just about making a video and then making the next video more crazier than the next.” Police announced they were opening an investigation into the pair the same day.
In a May 1 video, Hall explained the children were “doing good” and “getting back to their playful selves." Her lawyer Tim Conlon said the children were in a “deprogramming sort of mode."
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Mike Martin, the man behind the DaddyOFive YouTube channel, and his second wife Heather lost custody of two of his five children, Cody and Emma, to their biological mother Rose Hall on Friday, Mashable reports. Hall was granted emergency custody after a now-removed video of the Martins making Cody, 9, cry went viral.
DaddyOFive was filled with videos of the pair pranking their children (pranks included Mike convincing Cody he was adopted, and smashing his X-box, for example), though they’ve removed all their videos except for the above apology since the one in question blew up. In that video, which was titled “INVISIBLE INK PRANK ( EPIC FREAKOUT )," Mike and Heather poured ink on Cody’s bedroom floor and accused him of making the mess. They then accused him of lying about it, which ultimately made him cry. After explaining it was a prank, Cody did not react.
YouTuber Philip DeFranco picked the video up and wondered aloud whether several videos on the channel could be considered child abuse. “If they've really been called and CPS have said they did nothing wrong - the pushing, the hitting the screaming, putting the kids in these situations, egging them on - if they saw all that, if they've seen all the other things I would personally label emotional abuse,” he said. His video has more than 3 million views.
On April 28, the Martins appeared on Good Morning America where Heather said “[What] you see on our YouTube channel is not a reflection of who we are. It's not.” Mike elaborated he was “ashamed,” and that "It started out as family fun ... but then it was just about making a video and then making the next video more crazier than the next.” Police announced they were opening an investigation into the pair the same day.
In a May 1 video, Hall explained the children were “doing good” and “getting back to their playful selves." Her lawyer Tim Conlon said the children were in a “deprogramming sort of mode."
Follow Tess on Twitter.
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