BHAD BHABIE’S father has opened up about mending his estranged relationship with his daughter after spending 20 years battling – in and out of court – to see her.
Ira Peskowitz, 56, said he and his daughter – real name Danielle Bregoli, 21 – now have a “great relationship” after what he described as a “war” in family courts throughout her childhood as he fought and ultimately lost rights to see her.
Ira is over the moon that Danielle has reunited with him and his family[/caption]
He credits Danielle’s boyfriend Le Vaughn for encouraging the reconciliation[/caption]
Ira spent years battling to see his daughter[/caption]
They finally reconnected thanks to her boyfriend and father of her baby daughter Kali, rapper Le Vaughn.
Ira said he is “ecstatic” and that his family, which includes his wife and two sons Isaac and Ilan, is “finally complete”.
He described their first meeting – at his home in Palm Beach, Florida – as “priceless” and said he couldn’t believe Danielle was finally sat in his kitchen after years of anger and anguish.
“He [Le Vaughn] kind of pushed her kind of saying, ‘Hey, you know it’s important to hook up with your dad’,” Ira said.
“I know that he lost out some things in his life with his dad.
“It was a big accomplishment. So a lot of times through the years when I saw Danielle with people, I would try to reach out to them and show my kindness, my caring and everything like that.
“So I reached out to him and and he pushed the issue with her, and she listened to him.
“And we met the first time, obviously we met when she was like 12, 13 [in family court], but this time meeting her, pulling up in front of my house, getting out of a car, walking into my house and sitting in my kitchen and living room, I was just like, ‘Oh, my gosh!’
“Someone that I fought so hard for, for over 20 plus years is actually right here, sitting in my house with my wife, with my boys as a whole family.
“So I want to actually thank her boyfriend LV for doing that, that was good.
“And then we got together. You know we had some good times, we had some rough times a little bit, you know.
“It’s not so easy just kind of coming together because she had so many emotions towards me. So many things and I understand why.
“She always asks me questions. Some questions a little more critical than others, and I’ll tell her the truth. I mean, there’s nothing that I’m gonna hide. She might not like the answer, but I’ll tell her the truth.”
He added: “I’m just ecstatic that we are building our relationship and it’s going from strength to strength.”
Danielle first rose to fame in 2016 age 13, after appearing on the TV show Dr. Phil with her mom in a segment titled “I Want To Give Up My Car-Stealing, Knife-Wielding, Twerking 13-Year-Old Daughter Who Tried To Frame Me For A Crime.”
During her appearance, she became infamous for her phrase “Cash me ousside, how ’bout dat?” which quickly went viral and turned into a popular meme.
Danielle with her boyfriend during her pregnancy[/caption]
Danielle has had a successful career in music and on OnlyFans[/caption]
Ira with Danielle as a baby[/caption]
Following her viral fame, she pursued a career in hip hop using the rap name Bhad Bhabie and became the youngest female rapper to reach the Billboard Hot 100 chart with her debut single These Heaux in 2017 and has released several successful tracks since.
In 2021, she announced she made $1 million in the first six hours of setting her OnlyFans page live, which was launched only a week after her 18th birthday.
Ira, who left Danielle’s mom when she was a baby, has previously voiced concern about her being in the limelight at such a young age, and Danielle regularly attacked him on social media and even had him removed from her birth certificate.
However now they’ve decided to put the past behind them and work on their relationship – and he even traveled to California last week to help Danielle as she recovered from plastic surgery on her nose.
‘CHILDHOOD LOST’
“It’ll always be a work in progress, for we’ve lost 20 plus years. I’ve lost all of her childhood. I didn’t get to grow up with her,” Ira said.
“But I have a granddaughter now that she has a daughter, Kali, and I can make sure that Kali gets what she needs to grow up as a little girl, you know, not being taken into the spotlight, not being traveled all over the world… and exposed in ways.
“You know she’s [Danielle’s] obviously successful in her career. But she’s lost out on a lot of things.
“But our relationship is great. I just got back from from California. She asked me to come out there to help with a few things. How could a daddy say no? When your child you’ve been trying to be with for for 20 plus years, says, ‘Hey, dad, can you come to California help me out?’
Ira says Danielle has a great relationship with his wife Stephanie and her two brothers[/caption]
“Of course I’m going to do that, and I’m going to drop everything, and I’m going to go out there…so I went out there. We had a really good time… she posted to the world she just got her nose done.
“She had some some surgery done on her nose, she didn’t like a little bump, and you could blame me for that, because I might have a little bump!
“But I went out there, I helped her, through post surgery and stuff and it was great, I couldn’t have been so happier just just being there and helping her in such a situation. That’s what dads do, you know?
“So our relationship is very good. Right now we’re we’re we’re getting stronger day by day and then with my wife and with her brothers, Isaac and Ilan. It’s just growing for the best.”
CANCER BATTLE
It comes as Danielle revealed she was suffering from a form of blood cancer that raises her white blood cell count.
Ira gave an update on Danielle’s cancer battle – saying she was “doing well” and he was there to support her however she needed.
“She’s getting her therapy or treatment and she’s progressing, you know,” he said.
“It’s the lowest form of cancer, obviously, it’s out there, she has discussed what it was.
“Now I am there for her, and nothing’s gonna stop me, absolutely nothing’s gonna stop me.
Ira Peskowitz
“I’m there to support her… She’s doing well, it’s going to take a little while to kill the cancer cells but she’s in good spirits about it.
“So I’m not worried about that… you know you have concerns in the back of your head, of course. But she’s she’s going to get better.”
Ira battled for years for parental rights to see Danielle and revealed to The Sun in 2018 he was forced to give up those rights due to mounting legal costs and stress – branding the family court system “a failure”.
He always, however, professed his love for his daughter making an emotional video plea, which can be viewed below, to Danielle in The Sun at the time saying: “Daddy always loved you. Daddy will always love you. I’m sorry that I haven’t been part of your life because of many barriers that were put forth for me not to be part of your life, but you always have a father here.”
As his custody battle became public, Ira said he was contacted by many other parents in similar situations and became a staunch campaigner against parental alienation, supporting organisations and individuals.
He is now supporting a bill in Florida called the Child Safety and Custody Compliance Act that will give law enforcement more powers to enforce parental rights and address parental alienation, rather than having cases sent back to family court, which can take months to resolve.
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS
Law enforcement officer Ira added: “It hits all. It hits everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re poor, you’re rich, you’re a celebrity, you’re the President of the United States. Parental alienation will hit you.
“As long as there’s attorneys out there to throw in a motion. You pay them, they’ll throw in a motion, no matter how frivolous it is to help another person keep a child away. I don’t know how those attorneys sleep at night. To be honest with you, I really don’t…
“I get people connecting with me with people from all over the world, and they tell their stories and I try to tell mine a bit, or give them some encouragement, and I try to share the hardships that they’re going to go through, and what to expect.
There’s a lot of demons inside me that I fought. I fought them off and I killed every one of them just to be a dad
Ira Peskowitz
“Not only do adults reach out to me, but children reach out to me to saying, ‘Hey, I don’t have a dad’, or ‘I don’t have a mom’ or ‘I grew up this, and and you know, how did Danny deal with it?’
“People are suffering from this.”
Ira says he thinks Danielle now recognises how hard he battled to stay in her life and he hopes one day they may even be able to campaign on issues surrounding parental alienation together.
“I think she she understands that I didn’t go away. She understands a lot of the hardship that I went through,” he said.
“She understands how it affected me in my personal life, in my career. with relationships with some other people.
“I fought a battle that not everybody would have fought. A lot of people told me to just ‘go away’, you know, ‘Just let her be’, and I say to these people, ‘Would you do that to your child? Would you ever do that to your child? Just walk away and not ever want to see them again?’
‘FAMILY COMPLETE’
“Yeah, unfortunately, some some parents do that, but it’s not me. I don’t do that. I couldn’t. I saw a child in need for love. I saw a child in need for a dad and I saw something that was part of me that needed me to be back in that child’s life. So I’m just really happy now.
“My family is complete now, my mom is ecstatic, and my other cousins and aunts are sending me messages, can’t wait to meet her and stuff because they’re part of her family.
“And they saw the struggles that I went through, they saw the demons that I was fighting. You haven’t seen them. I don’t expose them on social media, but there’s a lot of demons inside me that I fought. I fought them off and I killed every one of them just to be a dad.”
One thing Ira wants to address is that he has “never made a cent” off his daughter and never wants to.
“I’ll tell people this all the time, because they always say this stuff,” he said.
“It’s never about the dollar sign. I’ve not made one cent off my daughter, and nor will I.
“It’s about being a human being and helping other humans go through struggles in life. And really you have to go through it to understand.”
‘NEVER GIVE UP’
Ira’s advise for parents who have lost rights to their children is “Don’t give up.”
“Never, ever, ever give up,” he said.
“Realize that your child will be 18 years old one day, and your child is going to want to know some answers, they kind of pick up on it,” he said.
“Don’t enter into the risky life of alcohol abuse, of drug abuse, of risky behavior, because that doesn’t heal anything. There’s so many other things that you could do; physical fitness, diet, travel, reach out to people and talk to people.
It doesn’t matter if you’re poor, you’re rich, you’re a celebrity, you’re the President of the United States. Parental alienation will hit you.
Ira Peskowitz
“There’s no shame of going to a psychologist or a psychiatrist these days, or even a clinical, licensed social worker to be able to speak about these hardships that you’re going through.
“Don’t take your life, because if you take your life, then you’ll never be around for your child to be able to expel your concerns and your feelings of what you went through, and how you tried to be in their life.
“There is hope, don’t give up. For all these years, Danielle expressed a lot of anger towards me on social media and in the courtroom.
“And then sometimes she would post things about about me, saying, ‘Well, if you want to be my dad, why don’t you do this, this, this and that.’
“That stuff makes me realize, ‘Wow! I’ve hurt her, I hurt her emotionally’ and that she wants to be loved by a dad.
“She does have daddy issues she’s told me, because I wasn’t around. And I get that. And I apologize to her every day.
“It wasn’t my choice of not being around, believe me. I wanted to be there. My wife wanted to be there for her. My parents wanted to be there for her but due to the circumstances I wasn’t.
“But now I am there for her and nothing’s gonna stop me, absolutely nothing’s gonna stop me.
“There’s no judge. There’s no attorney, there’s no nothing. She’s an adult. She’s 21 years old. Nobody could stop me from seeing my daughter now because you just can’t, unless my daughter doesn’t want to see me anymore. But I don’t think that’ll happen.
“We’ve got too much invested now, and too much love and caring for each other.”
Bhad Bhabie rose to fame after an appearance on Dr Phil[/caption]
