Betty Broderick children: Where are her and Dan’s kids now?

By Justin Jones Last updated Nov 15, 2022

Where are Betty Broderick and Betty Broderick Children Now? Netflix has begun streaming the second season of the anthology series Dirty John, which is titled Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story. The series had its world premiere on the USA Network on June 2, 2020. The real-life narrative of Dan and Betty Broderick is presented to the viewer in the second season of the show.

When Betty shot and killed Dan and his new wife, Linda Kolkena, while they were sleeping, the couple gained notoriety and became a household name. Betty and Dan had been divorced for five years, and it had been a contentious and public process. During their marriage, they had four children: Kim, Lee, Daniel Jr., and Rhett.

Betty acknowledged in her memoir which was published in 2015 that this was not the finale she had envisioned for her family. “I adore my children with all of my heart, from the very first second of the day until the very last one, and I still do. They were my number one concern, and I yearned with all my heart for them to enjoy a joyful childhood.

After the couple divorced in 1989, Dan was awarded sole legal custody of all four of their children. In her autobiography, Betty reveals that she became pregnant nine times during the course of her marriage to Dan, which lasted for 16 years. She reveals that her spouse forbade her to utilize birth control during their marriage.

The couple’s children, Kimberly Broderick, Lee Broderick, Daniel Broderick IV, and Rhett Broderick, have opened up about their challenging childhoods now that they are adults. Even Betty’s children Kim and Lee gave testimony during their mother’s criminal trial in 1991. The trial took place in California.

The conflict between their parents ultimately resulted in a tragic event: in 1989, Betty was responsible for the deaths of both her ex-husband Dan and his new wife Linda Kolkena. Betty was found guilty of her crimes and is currently serving her time in jail.

In the thirty years that have passed since the killings, the couple’s children have matured, married, and even maintained a close relationship with one another. According to her Facebook, Kim, Lee, and Rhett all live very close to one another in Idaho; yet, they have quite different opinions regarding their mother’s fortune.

We are going to tell you about the Broderick children’s lives after the events of Dirty John and how they are handling their lives. Here is what we are going to tell you about their lives.

Table of Contents

The Broderick kids have grown up and have their own families.

Since Betty was given a prison sentence many years ago, three of her children have started their own families and moved on with their lives. In 2009, Betty sent a family picture shot in prison to a reporter working for L.A. Magazine. The picture featured Betty, her four children, and her two granddaughters. Since then, Betty’s family has only grown larger.

Betty has never seen her nieces or nephews outside of the prison gates, despite the fact that Kim and her brothers Dan and Rhett are all married now and have children of their own.

An article that was published in Inside Weddings about Dan’s wedding did not talk about his parents or the history of his family, but it did include a statement that was very crucial regarding the presence of his family in his life: The article states that Dan’s “heartfelt address also included a special moment of silence for all of the couple’s loved ones who could not be present,” and by “all of the couple’s loved ones” it is implied that Betty is included in this group of people.

The siblings have a close bond.

In 2020, when it was time to celebrate National Siblings Day, Kim wrote a status on Facebook that read, “My all-time favs. We simply couldn’t get through life without you.”

According to the information that can be found on Kim’s public Facebook profile, Kim lives in Idaho, not far from both of her brothers, Rhett and Lee.

Rhett Broderick appeared for an interview with Oprah.

Rhett Broderick, the youngest of the four children in the Broderick family, learned about the passing of his father and stepmother via a friend of the family.

Being questioned by Oprah seems to have become something of a rite of passage for the Broderick family. In 1992, Oprah conducted an interview with Betty Broderick when she was incarcerated, and she also spoke with Rhett, Betty’s youngest son.

Rhett recalled that his mother’s rash decisions did not surprise him in the least. “All I can remember is thinking, ‘Wow,'” she said. It didn’t come as much of a shock to me. “[My brother and I] went to my dad on several occasions and told him that we wanted to live with my mom and that the fact that she didn’t have any kids was driving her crazy—and that she could do something incredibly unreasonable if she didn’t have us,” Rhett said.

Rhett spent multiple periods of his upbringing away from his biological family, either with relatives or at residential treatment facilities for problematic children. Soon after the arrest of their mother, Rhett, then 13 years old, and Daniel, then 15 years old, relocated to Colorado to live with Kathy Broderick, the ex-wife of their uncle Larry Broderick. Kathy Broderick lived in Colorado.

Rhett revealed to Oprah that the years that followed were filled with upheaval, as he moved in with various relatives and attended a residential treatment facility for troublesome adolescents. “I continuously felt like I was under the microscope, like everything I did they were trying to blame on my parents’ condition,” he said. “It seemed like everything I did they were trying to blame on my parents’ position.”

Betty Broderick Children

Betty’s youngest kid was just 12 years old when she was convicted in 1991 and sentenced to 32 years to life in jail in the state of California. In an interview with the San Diego Reader in the year 1998, Betty described the ways in which she remained involved in the lives of her children.

According to the interview, her children did not visit her in prison for the holidays of Christmas or school breaks, but they did come to celebrate her birthday and Mother’s Day. Betty explained, “I didn’t want all of their recollections of those days to be of visiting Mom in prison,” which was one of the activities they did at the time.

In a book that she wrote and released in 2014 under the title Betty Broderick, My Mom: The Kim Broderick Story, Kim discussed how she and her siblings dealt with the events that took place (essentially agreeing to disagree).

In her memoir, Kim describes visiting her mother when she was incarcerated as “the worst heartbreak and sorrow I could ever fathom.” She compares it to the death of her father, which she describes as “the worst heartache and sorrow I could ever conceive.”

Decades later, it appears that they are still in communication with one another. In the memoir that she published in 2015, Betty stated that, at the time, she kept in regular contact with her children and grandkids, both by phone and in person.

As of 2010, the Broderick children were split over whether their mom should be freed from prison.

The verdict about Betty’s guilt was split among the members of the jury, and it was the same among her children. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, in 2010, they testified at her parole hearing, and their opinions regarding whether or not she should be freed were divided.

Her daughter Lee reported to the board that she had prepared a room for her mother before she met with them. Lee argued that she should be allowed to spend her senior years outside of a correctional facility. Rhett shared a similar feeling to Oprah many years previously when they were having a conversation about it: “Keeping her in prison isn’t really helping her. She is not a threat to society because the only two persons she posed a threat to are no longer alive.

Dan Broderick disagreed with this assessment and stated to CBS at the time that he believed his mother should remain incarcerated. He went on to say, “In my heart, I know that my mother is a good person.” On the other hand, she became disoriented along the route. It is possible to make a risky mistake by reintegrating an individual who has become lost in society. According to NBC, Kim Broderick was another witness who opposed her mother’s dismissal from the hospital.

In 1991, Kim and Lee Broderick testified at their mother’s trial.

At the age of 20, Kim Broderick testified in the legal proceeding involving her mother. The testimony provided by Kim illuminated the extent to which Betty deteriorated during the course of the five-year divorce proceeding. According to Kim, Betty burnt all of Dan’s clothing in the yard at one time, as was reported by CBS8 San Diego.

Kim’s relationship with her mother, who allegedly treated her in a callous and brutal manner, deteriorated as a result of the divorce, and it cost Kim dearly. Kim thought back to the day when her mother had planned to stop by her apartment, but then quickly changed her mind and chose not to. Kim recalls Betty stating something along the lines of “All of a sudden, I remembered, I really loathe your guts.” “You turned your back on me. You make me sick.”

Lee was written out of her father’s will.

Lee Broderick, the second-oldest of the Broderick children, testified in court as well. Lee was the first person her mother phoned after she shot the gun in Dan’s house. Lee was the second Broderick child to testify. During the call, it was stated that Betty told Lee that “the bitch is dead.”

Lee was the second witness to take the stand in Betty’s criminal case in 1991, following her sister Kim. She couldn’t help but think back to the heartbreaking phone call that her mother had given her in November of 1989. “She stated that she was in a bind and that she required assistance. During the course of her mother’s criminal prosecution, Lee testified that her mother had admitted to her that she was the one who had shot her father.

According to Distractify, Lee’s relationship with her father was strained and fraught with tension. Purportedly, Dan modified his will just before he passed away in order to prevent his second daughter, Lee, from inheriting any of his fortunes. This was reportedly done for reasons unrelated to Lee’s relationship with her mothers, such as her daughter’s struggles in school and her drug usage. According to the Los Angeles Times, Dan’s will stipulated that his property be split three ways, with each of his other children receiving an equal share.

In 2010, despite the fact that Lee was a witness in the case, she advocated for the release of her mother. She expressed how much she missed her father, but she assured the panel that her mother would be able to live with her if she was granted freedom. She is quoted as saying that “she should be permitted to live her later life outside of prison walls.” This quote is from The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The article in the San Diego Reader states that Betty believes Lee is the most similar to her.

Betty and Dan Broderick could have more children.

During the course of her marriage to Dan Broderick, which lasted for 16 years, Betty reportedly became pregnant nine different times. She reveals this information in her memoir, where she says that Dan was opposed to her using birth control.

In the end, the couple was blessed with four children. Kimberly and Lee, the couple’s daughters, were both born on the East Coast while Dan was attending graduate school there. Dan eventually earned degrees from Cornell Medical School and Harvard Law School. Daniel and Rhett, their two kids, were both born in the state of California.

Betty also gave birth to a boy, but he passed very shortly after birth. In addition to that, she experienced two miscarriages and two abortions. Betty decided to get her tubes tied after the birth of her fourth son so that she would not have any more children.

Where is Betty Broderick?

Betty is still in custody in the California Institution for Women in Chino, where she is currently 73 years old and has spent her whole adult life. Even though the punishment is almost through, she will likely spend the rest of her life incarcerated for the crimes she committed.

In January of 2017, the California parole board, which at the time consisted of only two members, reached the conclusion that she should remain incarcerated. In 2032, when she will be 84 years old, she will once again be eligible for parole consideration.

Richard Sachs, the district attorney, was asked about the ruling, and he responded by saying that Betty Broderick is a woman who does not apologize. She exhibits no sorrow and has absolutely no insight into the murders… She essentially stated that they pressured her to act in this manner.

On the other hand, Betty is said to have written a letter to the producer of the true crime television show Murder Made Me Famous, who was trying to profile the murder, in which she said, “I have no one to speak for me. I have no one to represent me. This was an instance of domestic abuse: a pattern of controlling someone by force that continued all the way through our marriage up until the day that I killed them.

“I have fulfilled all of the requirements for parole, and my original release date was in 2010… At this point, all I am is a political prisoner. They have no valid grounds to refuse to grant me parole,” she went on to say.

One terrible choice has the potential to make life a living hell not only for you but also for the people in your immediate environment. This is something that Betty Broderick has realized as a result of her life experiences.