Rory Feek: Daughter’s Coming Out Challenged His Faith, But He Loves Her ‘Even When It’s Hard’

In 2016, Rory Feek admits he was forced to reexamine his faith -- but not because of his wife Joey's death that March. Rather, it was his daughter Hopie coming out to him that made Feek step back and think about his beliefs.

In a new interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Feek shares that, days after Joey died on March 4, 2016, he sensed that Hopie had something to tell him.

“I said, ‘Just tell me, Hopie,’” Feek recalls. “And she went on to tell me that her friend Wendy was more than her friend, that Wendy and her had been dating for almost a year. And that she was in love.”

Feek is a devout conservative Christian, and, therefore, Hopie was worried that her father would judge her. "Even more than that,” Feek admits, “she’s asking me, ‘Are you still going to love me?’"

"And my first reaction, honestly, was I don’t think so," Feek adds. However, he started wondering, "Am I supposed to shun my child now and say, ‘No, you can’t be in my life until you come around to thinking like I’m thinking?'”

“The only thing I try to keep in mind is, it’s her life, it’s her choice, it’s her faith," says Feek, "and my job is to love her even when it’s hard." Feek tells CBS Sunday Morning's Anthony Mason that, despite his initial reaction, he loves and accepts his daughter.

Hopie is one of Feek's two daughters from a previous relationship; his other daughter's name is Heidi. Together, Rory and Joey Feek, who wed on June 15, 2002, had a daughter named Indiana.

She was the first woman I could actually look up to,” Hopie says in the CBS Sunday Morning interview of her late stepmother.

CBS Sunday Morning airs at 9AM ET on CBS. The episode featuring this interview with Feek will air on June 17.

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