The willis family dating

That was certainly the case for the Willis family of Tennessee, an improbably handsome troupe of 12 children, all of whom sang and danced on stage. They performed as The Willis Clan , playing bluegrass, Celtic, and acoustic country music, and several of them were championship Irish dancers. TLC hopped on board in with a reality show called The Willis Family, which followed the smiling brood through their life together in a big country home, taking care of meal prep for 14, doing chores and school work, plus rehearsing music and dance routines. Not only did the family play bluegrass, but the members intersected socially with young pickers in Nashville, and the normal dating life of the teenaged children brought a number of known Music City grassers on the show. But the bottom fell out last September, when their father, Toby Willis, was arrested for child rape and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Though not stated at the time, it eventually came out that the rape in question involved his oldest daughter, and the family cancelled all of their stage shows and clustered together to deal with the aftermath.

By Jennifer Smith For Dailymail. The oldest of the 12 Willis Clan siblings has described for the first time how their father Toby molested her and beat her and how she escaped him four months before his arrest. In a lengthy blog post that she published on Friday, Jessica Willis Fisher, now 26, described how the abuse began when she was just three years old and how it persisted throughout her adult life. She told why she chose to leave her 11 siblings and explained that while she is no longer part of their country music group, she will always be part of 'the family'. In April , four months before year-old Toby was arrested on the back of a tip from a friend of the family, Jessica fled their home in Tennessee. He had beaten her with a belt that day over a row she had with one of her brothers, she said.

During their darkest times, in the shadow of dad Toby Willis' arrest for sexual abuse, members of The Willis Clan turned to music to help them cope. Now, after a two-year hiatus from the public eye, the six eldest members of the Nashville-based singing group are back with a new album, Speak My Mind , released on Sept. He pleaded guilty to four counts of child rape in and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. But they started playing the songs to each other and to friends and family, who liked what they heard.

Toby Willis , patriarch of TLC's reality show The Willis Family , was arrested in September and charged with raping a child , calling into question the entire persona of this seemingly wholesome TV family. The reality series, which debuted in May , focused on the personal and professional lives of the expansive Willis brood, particularly its musical and dancing talents. But in , their reality show was cancelled after just two seasons. According to TMZ , the network axed the series in May and was "shocked to hear the news" of Toby's arrest. TLC reportedly conducted extensive background checks on the family prior to approving the show and uncovered no signs of trouble.