In 1989, Betty Broderick killed her ex-husband Dan Broderick and his new wife Linda in their San Diego home, ending a bitter divorce war in violence and leaving four children to grow up without either parent. The sensational trial made Betty a household name, but the children — Kim, Lee, Daniel IV, and Rhett — were left to navigate their grief, anger, and loyalty in very different ways. Kim Broderick was just 19 when her mother committed the murders. As the eldest, she had spent years witnessing the conflict between her parents firsthand.
She later recalled her mother throwing a stereo at her father and locking him out of the house, and she said Betty once told her, “I wish you were never born and I hate your guts. ” Kim testified against her mother during the trial and was one of the children who opposed Betty’s parole. She later wrote a memoir about growing up in the shadow of the crime. Lee Broderick was 18 when she received the phone call every child dreads.
Her mother called her in the early morning hours and admitted she had shot her father. Lee testified about that call. Before the murders, her relationship with her father had been strained, and he had removed her from his will. Unlike Kim, Lee became Betty’s strongest advocate, supporting her release and even offering to house her.
Daniel Broderick IV was only 13 when his mother killed his father. He and his younger brother Rhett were sent to live with relatives in Colorado to escape the media attention. Daniel pursued a career in business and, at his wedding, asked for a moment of silence for the parents who could not be there. At his mother’s parole hearing, he expressed concern that she had not fully accepted responsibility.
Rhett Broderick was just 10 years old at the time of the murders. He later said he was not surprised by what his mother did, telling Oprah Winfrey that he and Daniel had warned their father that their mother might do something drastic. Rhett has remained the most forgiving of his siblings, visiting Betty regularly and raising a family far from the spotlight. Betty Broderick has been denied parole multiple times.
Her children remain close to one another, choosing to respect each other’s differing feelings about their mother in order to preserve their own family bonds.