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Who is Jessica Fisher’s father? Singer reveals HARROWING ABUSE by 'Willis Family’ patriarch spanning years

Willis Fisher, now 30 years old, broke her silence about her upbringing for the first time in a disturbing blog post from 2018
UPDATED DEC 12, 2022
Toby Willis' oldest child Jessica Willis Fisher bravely alerted authorities about him in 2016 (YouTube/ TV Guide, Jessica Willis Fisher)
Toby Willis' oldest child Jessica Willis Fisher bravely alerted authorities about him in 2016 (YouTube/ TV Guide, Jessica Willis Fisher)

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: Toby Willis exercised autocratic control over his 12 musical children for 25 years. Despite the fact that the father was also sexually abusing at least four of his young daughters, as featured on TLC's 'The Willis Family,' no one dared to rebel against him. Some of the other children were beaten so severely that they had bloody bruises. Currently serving a 40-year term for child rape, Willis, 52, is inmate No 581910 at the Tennessee State Prison in Tiptonville. His oldest child, the musician Jessica Willis Fisher, bravely alerted authorities about him in 2016. 

Jessica's brand-new memoir 'Unspeakable', details both her terrifying upbringing in a fundamentalist Christian household and the horror that followed her attempt to leave the family six years ago. The Willis family originally gained notoriety in 2014 when they took part in 'America's Got Talent' season 9. They later appeared on the brief-lived TLC program in 2015 and 2016.

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Jessica recalls some pleasant memories of growing up with her siblings, including numerous trips to Ireland, but she also recalls a great deal of misery. On a recent trip to New York with her husband, photographer Sean Fisher, she told New York Post, "I was literally doing shows, singing and putting on a performance but I was also putting on a performance every day offstage as well pretending to be happy. I was beaten and spanked for not smiling."

Even at age 23, Jessica was prohibited from having a cellphone and was not permitted to go out on dates without an escort, despite the fact that she was the lead vocalist, fiddle player, and primary songwriter for the family band. Her father, who kept a cache of AR-15 rifles at the house, had to approve of her haircut and wardrobe, like he did for many of her siblings. Her father referred to her as "demonic" when she started to rebel and said she wanted to leave home in her early 20s. Even though they were well aware of Toby Willis' extensive history of abuse, her mother and some of her siblings advised her not to report him, and accused her of disturbing the family's harmony.

In Toby's personal life, tragedy shaped his early years. Six of his parents' nine children were killed in a catastrophic vehicle disaster in Wisconsin in 1994, leaving his pastor father Scott and his wife Janet as the only survivors. Later, the family received a settlement of $100 million. Toby, a high school wrestling champion, met Brenda, his future wife, while they were both teenagers. They got married in the early 1990s and started having kids right away; Jessica, the oldest daughter, was born in the Chicago region in 1992. In 2001, the family relocated into a home that had originally belonged to country singer Randy Travis just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. There would eventually be 12 children in the family, all of whose names started with the letter "J." They forced their kids to participate in rigorous extracurricular activities including wrestling, competitive swing dancing, playing instruments, and singing while homeschooling. 

A still from Jessica Willis Fisher's song 'My History' (Jessica Willis Fisher/YouTube)
A still from Jessica Willis Fisher's song 'My History' (Jessica Willis Fisher/YouTube)

Jessica, now 30 years old, broke her silence about her upbringing for the first time in a disturbing blog post from 2018 that began, in part, “As far back as I can remember, I was sexually abused by my father. I figured out I was about three years old in some of the earliest memories."

When Jessica was nine years old, her mother came up to her and inquired as to if her father was acting improperly. Hesitantly, Jessica nodded. But according to Jessica, her father initially denied everything and later escalated his covert and "dangerous" abuse. When speaking about the time she and her sisters were assaulted at the Willis house and while on tour, she said it is "astounding how it wasn't talked about." “Much later, we got to the point where there were conversations about the problem, Dad’s problem. But none of those times did I say that Dad this or that to me.”

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