Where Is Lee Broderick Today? Things You Didn’t Know About Him

Lee Broderick, the daughter of infamous couple Dan and Betty Broderick, has lived through a tumultuous journey marked by tragedy and family strife. Despite the chaos surrounding her parents’ highly publicized divorce and her mother’s subsequent conviction for murder, Lee’s life has taken unexpected turns, revealing layers of complexity and resilience.

Lee Broderick is the second eldest child of the notorious couple Dan Broderick and his ex-wife and murderer Betty Broderick, real name Elizabeth Anne Broderick.

Lee’s mother, Betty, murdered her ex-husband Daniel T. Broderick III, and his second wife, Linda, on 5 November 1989.

As a result, Betty was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and was later sentenced to 32 years to life in prison. The case of Betty and Dan received widespread media attention; the case was dramatized in several versions and several books.

In June 2020, the Broderick family drama was adapted into the second season of the Netflix series Dirty John, entitled Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story. In the more than 30 years since the murders, Dan and Betty’s children have grown up, married, and even remained close.

Lee Broderick’s children have been used time and again as ammunition in Dan and Betty’s long-running battle of disgust, divorce, and reckoning. Of all Betty’s children, Lee was/is the only one who approached this heartbreaking issue with a more empathetic mindset.

See what she is doing these days. Read all about how she reacted to her mother killing her father, where she stands with her mother after all these years, and Where Is Lee Broderick Today. Things You Didn’t Know About Him her personal life, and more.

Key Takeaways:

• Lee Broderick, born Kathy Lee Broderick in 1971, is now 51 years old.
• She and her siblings endured a turbulent childhood amidst the bitter divorce of their parents, Dan and Betty Broderick.
• Lee resides in Idaho with her sister Kim, while her brother Daniel Jr. lives in California.
• Despite testifying against her mother during the trial, Lee advocated for Betty’s release from prison in 2010.
• Lee’s relationship with her father was strained, leading to her exclusion from his will.
• Betty Broderick’s volatile behavior, including physical abuse, deeply impacted Lee and her siblings.
• Lee’s personal and professional life remains largely private, with limited information available publicly.
• While Lee had a boyfriend during her mother’s trial, her current relationship status is undisclosed.

How Old Is Lee Broderick; Her Birth Details, Childhood, And Education

Lee Broderick is currently 51 years old and was born Kathy Lee Broderick in 1971.

Lee and her siblings grew up near San Diego. She lived with her parents until she was a teenager, but two years after Dan and Betty divorced, Lee began living in Pacific Beach. Katie did not do well in school; she had dropped out of high school.

Lee Broderick Siblings

Lee Broderick has three siblings – a sister, Kim, and two brothers, Rhett and Daniel Jr. Kimberly Curtin Broderick or Kim Broderick is the eldest child of Dan and Betty.

She published a book in 2014 called Betty Broderick, My Mom: The Kim Broderick Story. In the book, Betty’s eldest daughter revealed how she and her siblings survived what happened.

In the book, Kim also admits that visiting her mother in prison was the greatest heartache and grief she could ever imagine.

ALSO READ: Who Is Jordy Burrows? His Career, Marriage, & Divorce With Nathalie Kelley

Lee Broderick Lives In Idaho With Her Sister, Kim

Both Kim and Lee currently live in Haley, central Idaho. Presumably, Rhett also lives in Idaho, but it is not clear whether he is close to his sisters.

Lee’s other brother, Daniel Jr, lives in California.

Daniel has followed in his father’s professional footsteps. He is now a real estate lawyer in San Diego, California. He also has a wife and three children.

Lee Broderick’s Father, Dan Was A High Profile Lawyer 

Lee’s father, Dan Broderick, received his medical degree from Cornell University, after which he attended Harvard Law School. In San Diego, he became one of the city’s most successful plaintiffs’ lawyers.

He also served as president of the local bar association in 1987. Lee’s father was a high-profile attorney with an enviable contact list and an impeccable reputation.

Dan, a prominent legal malpractice lawyer, was an aggressive, persuasive, and cunning attorney who made millions of dollars annually and was at the peak of his career.

Lee’s Parents’ Relationship

Betty met Dan in the 1960s and they married in April 1969 and had five children together, one of whom died. Their daughters Kimberly and Lee were born while Dan was at university on the East Coast.

Their sons Daniel and Rhett were born in California. Betty also had two miscarriages and two abortions. After the birth of her fourth son, Lee’s mother had her fallopian tubes tied to prevent further pregnancies.

The Reason Behind Lee Broderick’s Parents’ Divorce  

People called the divorce of Lee’s parents, Dan and Betty, “the worst divorce in San Diego County.”

The divorce proceedings included accusations of gassing, restraining orders, and a vicious custody battle over their four children, Kim, Lee, Daniel, and Rhett. Betty told the Los Angeles Times in 1990 that their tumultuous marriage had become truly untenable in 1983.

By this time, her ex-husband Dan was having an affair with his legal assistant, 20-year-old former flight attendant Linda.

For his part, Dan claimed that his marriage to Betty had been fraught with “real incompatibility problems” from the start. Part of the problem, he said, was that he could not be “the good, loving husband that I could be”.

Lee Broderick’s Parents Fought A Messy Divorce Battle 

In September 1985, Dan filed for divorce from Betty; the proceedings lasted five years. The fight over child custody and property issues was dramatic.

During the divorce, Betty spray-painted the interior of the $ 325,000 hillside house where they lived together. Lee’s mother crashed her car into Dan’s front door, left obscene messages on his answering machine, and defaced court documents by writing “God” instead of his name.

Betty said Dan used his legal clout to gain sole custody of their children. She alleged that he sold their house against her will and prevented her from receiving her rightful share of the income. In her memoirs, Betty revealed that during her 16-year marriage to Dan, she became pregnant nine times.

She also claimed that her ex-husband did not allow her to use contraceptives. Dan retaliated by ordering the police to arrest Betty, and send her to jail and even to a psychiatric hospital.

Lee’s father also tried to control her by withholding between $100 and $1,000 a month from her child support payments. He gave her fines for behavior he considered inappropriate. He also obtained a temporary restraining order to prevent her from entering his house.

When Betty threatened him, Dan wrote her terse letters in the coldest legal language. During all this time, Dan had full custody of all four children.

The Day Lee Broderick Mother Killed Her Father And His New Wife 

The dynamic between Lee’s parents, Dan and Betty, took a whole new turn on 5 November 1989, when Dan and his new wife Linda Colken were shot dead in their Marston Hills home while they slept.

Betty killed them both with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. Three of the bullets penetrated the couple, killing Dan and Linda.

After fatally shooting her ex-husband and his wife, Lee’s mother pulled the phone out of the wall so he could not call for help. The mother of four stood trial a year later, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

A second trial began in September 1991, and the jury found Betty guilty of second-degree murder. In February 1992, a San Diego judge sentenced Lee’s mother to 32 years to life in prison.

Since then, she has been in the hands of the California Department of Corrections. In the years following the start of her incarceration, she remained in the public eye through the media.

Lee Broderick And All Of Her Siblings Testified Against Their Mother, Betty Broderick

All of Betty’s children testified in court in 1991 in their mother’s criminal case. Her eldest child, Kim, testified, highlighting her mother’s unpredictable behavior after the divorce.

She claimed that in a telephone conversation, her mother allegedly told her “I wish you had never been born” and “I hate your soul”. Kim alleged that Betty called her a “traitor” on more than one occasion.

Speaking to People magazine in 1992 to tell them what her mother had said to her on phone calls from prison, Kim said,

“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.”

What Lee Broderick Said About Her Mother Killing Her Father? 

Betty’s second daughter, Lee Broderick, also testified in court. She was the first person her mother called after the shooting at Dan’s home.

She recounted hearing the shocking phone call she received from her mother in November 1989. Lee reported that her mother had confessed to her to the murder of Dan and Linda. As reported, Kathy’s mother told her in the phone call: “That bitch is dead.”

Lee Broderick Spoke In Favour Of Her Mother’s Release; Her Other Siblings Didn’t 

By the end of 2010, Lee and her siblings were largely divided on the fate of their mother. Although Lee testified against her mother during the sentencing process, she argued for her mother’s release in 2010. Cathy said she missed her father but told the council that her mother could live with him if they let her go.

“She should be able to live her later life outside prison walls,”

At least those were Kelly’s words, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. Her younger brother Rhett agreed,

“I just remember thinking, ‘Wow.’ I wasn’t really surprised,”

Rhett expected something like this to happen because he told Oprah,

“On multiple occasions [my brother and I] went to my dad and said to him that we wanted to live with my mom and that not having her kids was driving her crazy—and that she could do something extremely irrational if she didn’t have us.”

On Oprah’s program, his brother described Cathy as a lovely woman and said that everyone would have liked her if they had spoken to her about a subject other than his father.

Rhett said that keeping his mother in prison did not help her. He told Oprah that she was not a danger to society – the only two people she was a danger to were dead.

Lee’s Sister, Kim, And Brother, Daniel Jr Refused To Vote For Their Mother’s Parole 

Betty’s eldest child, Kim, refused her mother’s requests to write a letter in support of her release from prison. Her eldest son, Daniel Jr, also told the same parole hearing in 2010 that his mother was still “fascinated with making excuses for what she did”.

He argued that the prison should not release her yet. Another parole hearing for the Brooklyn-born convict was also held in 2017, but the views of all the children remained unchanged.

Betty was ultimately not paroled, and she cannot face trial again until 2032. The former Ms. Broderick is currently serving her sentence at the California Women’s Institution in Corona.

What Did Betty Say About Her Children, Lee, Kim, Daniel Jr, And Rhett? 

Speaking about her children, Betty said in her 2015 memoir,

“I absolutely adore my children, from the first moment of the day to the last, and still do. They were my priority and I wanted so badly for them to have a happy childhood.”

Despite mixed feelings about their mother killing their father, all the siblings visit their mother on her birthday, on Mother’s Day, and at least once in the summer.

Betty herself set the conditions because she did not want the children to come for Christmas or other major holidays.

In an interview, a California prisoner said that she did not want all their memories of those times to be linked to their mother’s prison visits.

Lee Broderick Didn’t Have A Good Relationship With Her Father; He Cut Her Off From His Will

Lee reportedly had a difficult relationship with her father. In fact, before his death, Dan amended his will to exclude his second daughter from inheriting any of his property.

Dan never mentioned why he excluded Lee from his will, but it is believed that it was due to her problems at school and drugs, rather than her relationship with her mother. According to the Los Angeles newspaper “L.A. According to the L.A. Times, Dan’s will stipulated that his estate be distributed to all his children except Kelly.

On 9 August 1988, Dan amended his will to include this phrase:

“I specifically make no provision in this will for my daughter, Lee Gordon Broderick.”

Lee was 18 years old at the time. About the amendment of the will, Lee said that she knew that her father intended to do so.

She said.” He used to say he was going to discharge me, but I didn’t think he was going to do it. But he did.” Dan also did not let Betty have a key to his house, even though she lived there part-time, because he did not want her to have access.

In an interview, Cathy admitted how she would knock on doors, and if no one was home, she would have to go somewhere else.

ALSO READ: Who Is Nicola Elizabeth Frost? Truth About Tom Holland’s Mother

Betty Would Physically Harm Lee Broderick 

Lee’s relationship with her mother, Betty, was anything but ideal. As Lee’s older sister Kim told the Los Angeles Times, Lee could not escape Betty’s temper. She was once beaten with a fly whip.

“Lee would always say, ‘Your spankings don’t hurt me,’ — you know, she was bratty,”

Kim said.

“OK, next time you’re bad, I’ll hit you with a fly whip.” Betty replied, “Okay, next time you’re bad, I’ll hit you with a fly whip. Kim reported that Lee’s legs were badly scarred while she grabbed her younger brother Danny and hid in the closet.

Kim added that often her mother would throw frozen food or hit Kim and her stubborn sister Lee.

Despite all this, Lee was the first person Betty called after she shot Dan and Linda in the early hours of 5 November 1989.

Is Lee Broderick On Social Media? 

Although Katie finds it quite difficult to be on Instagram, she was suitably active on Facebook until early 2021. Throughout her time on FB, Betty’s second child mostly posted TBT pictures of her family, especially her father and siblings.

Despite all this, though, something that is shrouded in mist is understanding Lee Broderick’s professional life. Because of her moderately tonsured life, people outside the Broderick circle know almost nothing about her work commitments or present-day goings-on.

Betty once told me that Lee is computer literate, but whether she is still working in that field is unclear.

Does Lee Have A Husband/Partner? 

Although it is rather mysterious in the present, Lee had a boyfriend in the past, at the time her mother killed her father, and during the subsequent court proceedings. Lee’s partner at the time, Jason Prantil, was one of the many people who testified at the trial of Betty Broderick.

What is more, immediately after the shooting, Betty went to the apartment where Prantil and Lee Broderick were living.

However, it is not yet clear who Betty’s partner is. It has been ages since Lee sat for an interview in which she might have revealed her personal or marital life.

And although she was quite active on Facebook until 2021, Lee has never bothered to mention who she is in a relationship with.

FAQs

Where is Lee Broderick today and how did she react to her mother killing her father?

Lee Broderick, now 51 years old, resides in Idaho with her sister Kim. Despite testifying against her mother, Betty Broderick, during her trial, Lee advocated for Betty’s release from prison in 2010. Lee’s relationship with her father was strained, leading to her exclusion from his will. She remains private about her personal and professional life, with limited public information available.

Where is Lee Broderick now?

Today, Lee Broderick is believed to be living in Idaho.

Who Is Lee Broderick‘s Father?

Dan Broderick Is Lee Broderick’s Father.

What is the Nationality of Lee Broderick?

Lee Broderick’s Nationality is American.

Who are Lee Broderick’s Siblings?

Lee Broderick, Kim Broderick, and Daniel Broderick Jr

Who Is Lee Broderick’s Mother?

Betty Broderick