The Respondent: Exposing the Cartel of Family Law Paperback – 29 Jun. 2021

This book is devastatingly painful to read, it really shines light on the gruesome pathological behaviour of parental alienation, family courts, false allegations, mental illness and the trauma due to family separation. If even a movie star cannot escape its clutches what hope is there for the rest of us? This is a cautionary tale and if you are experiencing a violation of your parental rights by court or an ex partner this is a must read. My heart goes out to Greg Ellis, I hope you will be reunited with your boys very soon. Children need both parents.

I follow Greg on Twitter and thought I would read his book. It’s heartbreaking and powerful and shows what a wonderful human being he is. Everyone should read this book.

Wasn't sure what to expect but this is very interesting and also very sad at the same time. Would recommend that everyone should read this as it gives an insight from the male prospective on how things can escalate so quickly without cause.

A heart wrenching read, powerful and emotional. A deep dive into the darkness that is divorce exposing the corruption within the system. My heart goes out to Greg and his boys.

Fascinating insight in to how the legal system can be used as a weapon against a former spouse

A great and gripping read. We need more light on Western Family Courts. Thank you Greg Ellis!

Everyone should read this book, particularly those who have never been touched by divorce. It is a wake up call for us all. Family has been devalued for decades, family should be the bedrock of society the very heartbeat of all our lives. We have to start to reimagine the whole process of separation and divorce, to bring together all organisations and agencies at the first sign of trouble, to give the whole family support as soon as possible. It is the children who are the invisible casualties, and the ones who are damaged so badly. Denying contact has to become as socially unacceptable as drink driving.

I could write a book on this book. But if I had to write one sentence: This is an honest look at how false allegations destroy families, and how hopefully it’s never too late to turn things around.I can't rate this book highly enough.

During my life, I have seen couples divorce for various reasons. Family members, friends’ parents, artists that I like, and other friends whose divorces created quite an impact on relatives; alongside various behaviors from the divorcees. From some people, civility and kindness toward the other parent, alongside attempts to not create a public war before the kids. But on other family sides, I saw parents who refused to talk to one another and used their kid as the message transmitter using phrases like “Tell your mom that…” or “Tell your dad that!”. Worse is when I saw parents using their public voice to attack their ex-husband or ex-wife in public. With one artist even using its work to directly attack and insult their ex; which I found so disgusting as the kid is seeing their parent making money by insulting the other one. So regarding divorces, I was not surprised by the content in Greg Ellis’s podcast where he spoke, among many topics, of the family court law and the troubles he endured there as he and his wife were divorcing and he endured a nightmarish procedure.A situation that he describes in full detail in The Respondent: Exposing the Cartel of Family Law. A book I read in multiple reading sessions as the content is difficult, hard, and disturbing as what the actor endured from his ex-wife and her family is nightmarish. Starting from a police call fuelled by a horrible allegation to a sent up at a horrible psychiatric institution where he was jailed for several days, it is from this March 5 2015 moment that Greg Ellis discovers that his wife is divorcing him, doing everything she can to hurt him. Amongst many things, taking from him their kids, using various medical and legal experts to demonize him; affecting his career, his health, his interactions within Hollywood and friends around him who are pressured and brainwashed by his ex-wife into an untrue image of himself debunked by psychological experts who defend him. And though his kids defend their father before councilors, Greg Ellis encounters other obstacles. From the judges, his wife’s attorney, and the many legal restrictions imposed during this terrible ordeal. Discovering the disturbing misandrist culture within the family court system, where mothers have more voice and support from court of laws and judges than men/fathers who are treated like monsters and the unique cause of a family’s divorce.Of that misandry culture, it does not surprise me as it was presented in movies that recounted the experience of family divorce, but also denounced by artists I know who refused to embark into such war games and established proper and civil divorce procedures; with one actress (Vanessa Redgrave) expressing in her autobiography how she, her ex-husband Tony Richardson, and her eventual husband Franco Nero, despised all these career-driven mothers who use divorce procedures to demonize the father and to swindle from him money and his rights to spend equal time with his kids.So within this book, we discover the psychological and physical trials Greg Ellis went through during his divorce. Written in a concise prose without unnecessary descriptions; everything is given as it is. Hard to read content that is necessary as we discover his plights. Stuff that I admit would give serious nightmares for readers who are not prepared for the book’s content.And among the most shocking details, it is disturbing how some of Greg Ellis’s friends abandoned him and treated him like a guilty man. Though it is not as surprising as I having seen online several Hollywood celebs demonize others according to hate trends; whether these demonized celebs are accused of something without any visual/audio proofs, are villified by current media, or have expressed online a truth that displeases Hollywood’s cliques and endangers their trends. Which I witnessed for the last few years on social media; motivating me to reduce my interactions with Hollywood artists as their behaviors exhibited something creepy that discouraged me to see their work or to interact with them.Furthermore, the book presents medical and psychological reports that examine Greg Ellis’s medical and psychological statuses and his interactions with his kids; alongside great bibliography resources as he presents serious facts about our society and court systems and how they affect men and fathers' rights. By the way, it is much easier to access these articles if you use the e-book as it offers clickable web links.So this book is a chance for Greg Ellis to recount his experience within the family court and defend his name as it affected his career and Hollywood interactions, but it also allows him to confront the cultures of misandry and toxic femininity; two serious topics neglected by current media platforms. With some reporters/celebs saying that they don’t exist and that anyone who dares to mention those two topics are misogynists who silence the voices of women. Which is horrible and insulting as some of the most important victims of toxic femininity are women themselves.For as a reader, I saw various female authors doing important works denouncing misandry and toxic femininity. Like Amélie Nothomb’s novel Antechrista who deals with a female university student who bullies and torments daily her newest friend; or Riyoko Ikeda’s manga/anime series Oniisama Ee which confronts the bullying tactics within female private schools’ classes and their sororities. Even the comic book artist Marjane Satrapi, who was once on a French TV show, expressed her anger at this idea vehiculated by society that all women are creatures of purity and kindness incapable of hurting others. So she recounted on TV many instances of women assaulting men; saying that when you give somebody (woman or man) the power to hurt another human being, he or she will hurt the other individual, regardless of their sex.Furthermore, human resources experts are denouncing the women who work like Queen Bees, saying that these career-driven women are high school bullies in disguise who impose their work ideas on others and torment female and male employees who disagree with them.Even the attacks Johnny Depp experienced in 2020 from certain UK feminists/female politicians/refuges/women associations/Rita Skeeters/media are disturbing and worth denouncing as they relate to what Greg Ellis speaks in his book. Indeed, all of these detractors’ attacks exposed their misandry toward male victims like Johnny Depp, but also their toxic femininity as they ignored the voices of all the female police officers who defend Johnny Depp, all the women who saw Amber Heard assault Johnny, and of the assistant Kate James who denounced Amber Heard as an abusive bully who tormented her and exploited her son. Worse is the closeted misogyny several of these detractors exhibited as they insulted all the women/feminists/victims of domestic violence who defended Johnny Depp; saying that all these female activists were not real women, but instead 50-year-old cows who only do their Johnny Depp activism because they hope he will have sex with them one day. A misogynist attack — intercepted by several female Johnny Depp activists who gave strong replies to these bullies — that also confirms what I always suspected. Which is that several feminist groups harbor not only misandrist ideologies, but also misogynistic prejudices that they use on other women/feminists who don’t think like them.So regarding Greg Ellis’s book, I applaud what he writes here and I encourage everyone to purchase it. For he gives a voice to men and women silenced by actual media currents that propagate the idea that women are eternal victims incapable of hurting others and that men are pathological bullies and monsters who always hurt everybody. A media ideology I find so offensive since many years ago, I was friends online with a very toxic and abusive female celebrity who was horrible upon others, and her way of life and education upon her kids was a misandrist ideology that hurts them.So if you are interested in men's rights and father's rights, but also on the serious topics of toxic femininity and misandry, this book is a must to purchase.

This book is a masterpiece and a gem on many levels. To begin with, Ellis is a brilliant writer and stylist. The prose is of another world—elegiac and full of pathos without becoming mawkishly sentimental. The writing is cinematic and evocative. The words create a lush visual image of the harrowing experiences Ellis experienced by losing custody of his children. If you want to learn how deeply family law is antipodal to the interests of the father—then read this book. If you want to learn how one innocent man survived the single-minded goal of his spouse to destroy his life and career, but who emerged with his dignity intact, his love of life burning incandescently, and the way his profound love for his sons have kept him living with sustained purpose and meaning—read this book.I was struck by Greg Ellis’ graciousness throughout the book. In describing the toxic manner by which his ex-wife and ex-mother-in-law tried to set him up and destroy his life, Ellis does not resort to demonization of those vocationally called to destroy him. Rather, in a dignified and restrained manner he unfolds the chain of events that led to the crisis, orchestrated by his ex-wife, that found him being forced into a psychiatric unit.The book is suspenseful and a real page turner. Fathers matter. They love their children deeply and want to protect them. This is the story of a devoted father who exists as almost sub-human for the guardians and enforcers of family law. If your marriage is on the rocks and you honestly think divorce is a possibility—then read this book. It is chock full of profound insights about the nature of family law, and the hidden anti-male attitudes embedded in our culture that influence that law. Thousands of fathers like Greg Ellis have suffered unspeakable injustice by a legal system that regards men—by nature—as disposable, toxic and incapable of efficacious parenting.This is as much a survivor’s story as it is one of the most compelling memoirs and “anti-father” exposes that I have read in a long time. People who love humanity, the power of the family, and who wish to understand the devastating loss that occurs to children who suffer from the machinations of a system that pits parental interests against each other while ignoring the actual well-being of the children—should read this book.I read it for all those reasons and again—for the sheer mastery of language and poetic prose rendered here in a most exceptional book.

This is a great book that shows more than the author intended. First off, it shows the horrors of what a man goes through should a woman decide to falsely accuse him and use the court system and criminal justice system as a weapon, and the devastating effects it has on men and their children.One might think someone who went through everything Greg did that he would come out a red-pilled man. Many think he is. He's not. At best he's purple pilled... more red than a blue pill, but still very much blue. Greg states that women fighting for equality in society was very important and necessary, something he wholeheartedly agrees with, but the next paragraph states men have been disadvantaged and disposable for a very long time. Can't have it both ways, women can't fight for equality with men while men are also disadvantaged compared to women. Women wanting equality with men would require women giving up power to be in the same position as men. Think I'm wrong? Read this book.There is a part of Greg who cannot let go of the gynocenetrism that has imprisoned him starting in childhood with his abusive mother. Greg needs to hold onto his old idealism that has betrayed him, and I understand. It's hard to look at our beliefs and face the idea that they are wrong, and it is easier to assume one bad actor misusing the system than to presume an entire society is wrong.This book is about a blue pilled man becoming purple pilled. I hope one day Greg becomes red pilled, he's in a position to do a lot of good for men worldwide.

With this book, which is an intriguing mix of, as the book says, a memoir and a manifesto, Ellis provides a soul-bearing snapshot of what it's like to be stuck in a high conflict divorce with someone intent on destruction. Sadly, the legal system is set up in such a way that all the worst in human nature to flourish. Greg lays his heart on the line as he tries to find redemption and make sense of his own family's demise. This is a must for anyone who has slogged through the divorce courts. I'd also recommend it to those who know someone going through it. Don't know how to help? Get them this book. But it's also accessible for anyone who senses that the core of the culture war involves the denigration of the family as a core institution. In the end, a story about family breakdown is one about the children caught in the web. Greg's story helps illuminate the emotional crisis one can go through when their children are ripped from them. Whatever you think you know about divorce, you'll be surprised reading this. I guarantee long-held biases and myths will be shot down and you'll be left with a clearer understanding of a better way forward for our children.

Bought Sept ‘22. The author is a good writer. He provides unbelievable stories of his divorce fleecing with parental alienation a particularly abusive focus. Ellis does not pretend to be perfect and holds himself accountable. If this book helps expose that parental alienation needs to be stopped, it will serve to save thousands of lives and relationships.