TRANSCRIPT:
Mike Rinder knew about our family 20 years ago. He knew me. He knew about Philip’s [son’s] story. He knew about Liz [daughter]. And I think that he’s pulling this forward in order to fill his pocket book—make his show better. And to do that, he has to drive a wedge in between our family.
When Philip got his acceptance letters from the various different colleges, and he decided that he wanted to go to MIT, it was one of those things that required a lot of perseverance on his part, on my part, to make it happen, because there were those that would counter that because he was only 15.
Being a mom, having a 15-year-old kid that’s been accepted to Stanford and MIT and Cal Poly and several other universities, it causes you to really think about how you are—what’s best for your kid. And I think if I had known then about the high suicide rates in colleges in general—and MIT in specific—my approaches might have been different if I’d had that as part of the package of information that I was dealing with.
Philip had a journal that he kept. He started it after his dad died, and he went through to shortly before he died. And one of the themes that goes throughout it is the absolute stupidity of most people. He had a sort of ironic kind of look at people. And he was incredibly smart, so he saw through most people’s BS. You know, he didn’t—he could see through it. So, I heard from one of his roommates that he actually went to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist through the school health center. And the comment—and these are the words of his roommate, which I’m pretty sure is quoting Philip—was that the guy was a “dipshit.” And I can see how that would be, because Philip, like I said, he could see through the bull. And I expect that he went to this guy hoping for some sort of insight, and came away from it with, you know, a feeling of, “What the hell? That’s not going anywhere.” And it’s—it was not very long after that, I think less than a week, when he decided that his course of action was to take his life.
We went to New Hampshire—my daughter, my brother and I—we went to New Hampshire to Elizabeth’s [daughter’s] grandmother’s house. And we were getting together to just grieve, and to talk about it, and to have some family bonding. And during that time, while we were there, Mike Rinder called me and he asked me if I would go to Boston and start dealing with the press. And I said, “Is that what you need me to do?” And he said, “Yes.” And so I said, “Okay.” And I went—I went to Boston and started dealing with press and answering questions. And at that time, I had just had jaw surgery so my mouth is wired shut and I’m talking like this. And I’m on painkillers and antibiotics because I got a bit of an infection.
And when I look back at it, I think, “What the hell was I doing?!” I—that he wanted me to do that was—I don’t even have words for how wrong that was. Looking back at it, at the time I was so in shock still, and I hadn’t gotten my wits around anything, and to be out there doing that. Now I know that what I needed was to be with my family, and bond with my family, and help my daughter and have my time to grieve. But instead, at Mike’s behest, I’m there dealing with press and trying to be all together when I was falling apart.
The fact that Mike Rinder is dredging this up now and has managed to, somehow, convince my daughter that this is a good thing to be doing, just tells me that he is still, 20 years later, the same uncaring guy now that he was then. That what he’s doing is solely, and only, for his own benefit. He’s—I’m sure that under—somewhere in there, he’s making money, he’s getting some kind of personal benefit. I don’t know if it’s advertisers or pay, or, you know, his 15 minutes of fame, or whatever it is, but he’s doing it for him . And to pull this all up from the past means that—it’s just another sign that he doesn’t care one iota about the people and the families that he’s impacting and hurting.
And the bottom line is that, that’s a really disgusting thing for any human being to be doing. And I don’t like it in my family. I don’t want him around me or my family. And if at any time Liz wants to reconcile, I am here for her. That wedge is not going to be driven in this family. He’s not going to pull it off, because he’s an evil guy, and I won’t let him.
