Where Are Betty Broderick and Her Children Today?
Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, the second season of the true crime anthology series, has delved into the complicated, fraught marriage between Betty and Dan Broderick that eventually led to a double homicide. For the uninitiated, the couple (played by Amanda Peet and Christian Slater in the USA Network show) moved to affluent La Jolla, California, in the 1970s, where Dan became a successful medical malpractice lawyer and Betty stayed at home raising their four kids.
By 1982, their seemingly perfect marriage began to crumble after Betty suspected her husband of having an affair with his 21-year-old assistant, Linda Kolkena. Divorce proceedings—which began in 1985 and dragged on for four years—were so acrimonious (and violent) that Broderick vs. Broderick became known as the worst divorce case in San Diego County history.
In November 1989, just a few months after Dan got remarried to Linda, Betty used her daughter's key to enter the newlyweds' home and shot her ex-husband and his new wife. In 1991, Betty was convicted on two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to 32 years to life.
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What has Betty been up to for the past 29 years? And what happened to the Brodericks' four children (two girls, Kim and Kathy Lee, and two boys, Dan and Rhett)? Here is everything we know about where the remaining members of the Broderick family are today.
Betty is still serving out her sentence in California.
Betty has been incarcerated since the day she committed her crime and is currently serving her time at the California Institution for Women. She applied for parole twice, in 2010 and 2017, and was rejected both times for failing to exhibit any remorse for her crimes. The 72-year-old's next parole hearing is set for 2032.
While behind bars, Betty has given several interviews—including two televised sit-downs with Oprah in 1992—and penned an autobiography, Telling on Myself, that was published in 2015. "I live a lot happier than I did when I had all that money," she told the New York Times from the jail where she was being held without bail while awaiting trial. "I have my self-respect back. I feel like I can make it."
Her children are grown and have families of their own.
According to her memoir, Betty is still in touch with her children and grandchildren. Her oldest daughter Kim posted the photo above on Facebook this year for National Siblings Day. She lives in Hailey, Idaho, with her family, as does her sister Kathy Lee.
Kim was called to testify at her mother's trial—she was 21 at the time. In 2014 she published a book, Betty Broderick, My Mom: The Kim Broderick Story. Kathy Lee also testified and was allegedly the first person Betty called after shooting Dan and Linda. It was also reported that she was written out of her father's will.
Their brother Dan lives in La Jolla, California, with his wife Megan and their three daughters. The couple got married in a lavish 300-person celebration that was featured on Inside Weddings.
Youngest sibling Rhett, who was just 10 when his father was murdered, spent the subsequent years with various relatives and at camps for troubled teens. "I constantly felt like I was under the microscope, like everything I did they were trying to blame on my parents' situation," he told Oprah in 2005.
He seems to have turned out okay. Rhett got his BA at UC Berkeley and, like his two sisters, he now lives in Hailey, Idaho, with a wife and two daughters, and teaches history at Wood River High School.
But the siblings are torn about whether Betty should be released from prison.
All four children testified at Betty's first parole hearing in 2010. They were split as to whether their mother should be granted her freedom.
“She should be able to live her later life outside prison walls,” Kathy Lee told the parole board, suggesting that Betty could live with her. Rhett was also in support of her release. “She’s a nice lady,” he told Oprah. “Everyone here would like her… if they spoke with her on any topic other than my dad.”
Kim and Dan, on the other hand, didn't feel the same way. "In my heart, I know my mother is a good person," Dan said. "But along the way she got lost. Releasing a lost person into society could be a dangerous mistake."
This was back in 2010—perhaps their feelings will change by Betty's next parole hearing in 2032. By then their mother will be 84 years old.
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