TikTok

Madi Hart's breakdancing dad hits back after ‘funny trauma’ TikTok

Madi Hart's breakdancing dad hits back after ‘funny trauma’ TikTok

Ben Hart, aka B-Boy Benihana, hits back at comments calling him 'deadbeat' after Madi Hart's viral 'funny trauma' TikTok

Madi Hart/Ben Hart/X

A viral breakdancing dad whose daughter posted a video saying he ‘abandoned her’ to take it up has hit back at comments saying he is ‘deadbeat’, and proves he can still breakdance aged 66.

Comedian, actor and influencer Madi Hart, posting on TikTok as @madihart_soccer, uploaded a video about her ‘funny trauma’ last week, saying ‘my dad abandoned my family when I was five-years-old, which was a wife and four kids, to pursue amateur breakdancing and he got really good’.

Madi’s dad Ben Hart, also known as B-Boy Benihana, said he woke up the next morning to ‘hundreds of comments calling me a deadbeat dad, a child abandoner and all manner of other insults’.

In response, he posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, to set the record straight on Sunday (February 18) afternoon, and show that he's still got it.

@madihart_soccer

plz dont bully him btw u just have to laugh!! #storytime #anxiousattachment #therapytiktok #daddyissues #storytimes

In the TikTok Madi posted, she said: “He became the oldest actively competing breakdancer in the world and then he got on Good Morning America, talk shows and danced with Paula Abdul.”

But she goes on to say: “This guy wouldn’t pay my medical bills. There was no split custody or anything, he just left four kids to do that."

The video has got around five million views, more than 800k likes and more than 15k comments, some of which take aim at Ben.

And after seeing some of the heat he was getting, Ben decided to post a video of his own to give his side of the story.

In his video, Ben, who is wearing a black shirt with the Bitcoin logo emblazoned in gold, said: “About not paying medical bills, that’s just not correct – in all, I paid out about $5million to my ex-wife, Maddie’s mom, to cover costs for her and the kids; I'm not a deadbeat dad at all.

"I saw the kids all the time - no abandonment, just a divorce.

"And I did not abandon the family for breakdancing. I have a career, I'm in the advertising business and built an ad agency.

"I took up breakdancing entirely by accident in 2012 as a way to get in shape at the age of 54, and I then just kept doing it."



The video finishes with Ben showing off his moves, and it has already got more than 2.5m views in less than 24 hours.

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