A family friend is speaking out about the drama surrounding Rory Feek and his older daughters. There are things she doesn’t understand.

Feek’s eldest daughters Heidi and Hopie are threatening legal action against their father. They don’t feel their sister Indiana, a 10-year-old who has Down syndrome, is safe. They allege neglect and also say their father has been hanging out with a controversial organization. They’re referring to Homestead Heritage. Over the years, the organization drew a number of abuse allegations.

Julie Zamboldi spoke with Taste of Country about the sisters claiming Feek shut them out of Indiania’s life. “Myself, as a parent, if [my child] said, ‘I wanna have a better relationship, will you go to counseling with me?’ I would definitely say yes,” Julie said. “… I don’t know why he wouldn’t.”

She said that she also noticed a difference in Feek recently. She said that Homestead Heritage’s presence in Feek’s life has grown in recent years.

“I had looked at the news clips. And stuff. I don’t know if I’d put together that that was the place from Texas. I don’t know if I’d put together that that was where [Indiana] got hurt,” she said. She’s referring to the time Indiana hurt her leg while visiting a Homestead location.

Rory Feek Family Drama

Julie was a close friend of both Rory Feek and his late wife Joey. In fact, she says she was there beside Joey when she passed from cancer. Given her closeness to the family, she was shocked she didn’t get a wedding invite to Feek’s marriage to his new wife Rebecca. In the wedding photos, she also said she saw a host of new unfamiliar people.

“Who are the rest?’ Because it’s a picture of, I would say, over a hundred people,” she says. “Those are the people standing up for them. [Feek and Rebecca] are dressed like them now. It was just a big surprise to me. When did this relationship become all of this?”

She also said that she hopes that the family can patch things up.

“I wanna say, just so you know this. That I love the Feeks. I love Rory — I love his sisters. I love his kids,” Julie said.

“It really saddens me that Indiana — because Heidi and Hopie were such a big part of Indiana’s life, and she’s lost her mom, and then her sisters would be the next best thing, other than her dad. That’s my biggest [reason] for talking to you. They need to be able to be together,” she added.

She said she felt things would also be different if Joey was still alive.

“If Joey were here, none of this would be going on,” she concluded.  “She would never stand for this.”