THE Cruelest Mom True Story adds another level of terror to director Greg Beeman’s 2024 thriller – as the plot, which is already among most parents’ and teenagers’ worst nightmares, is based on real events. Cyberbullying has led to a tragic number of teenagers taking their own lives in recent decades, so it’s no surprise that Madelyn (Lisa Rinna) in Cruelest Mom decides to take matters into her own hands when her daughter, Mia (Briana Skye) becomes the target of relentless online harassment.
Initially, Mia is grateful for the way her mother seems to jump to her defense. However, things take a darker turn when Mia discovers that the online monster that is driving her mental health to levels she could never have imagined is, in fact, Madelyn herself. The Lifetime movie shows an incredibly disturbing form of child abuse — and it’s made even more harrowing by the fact that Cruelest Mom is based on real events, as is the incredibly evil character of Lisa Rinna’s mother.
Mom’s Cruelest True Story Explained
Madelyn is based on Kendra Gail Licari
The fact that Cruelest Mom is based on a true story and adds an extra layer of discomfort to the already disturbing Lifetime movie. It is almost every parent’s nightmare that their child is subjected to a prolonged campaign of cyberbullying – especially at the hands of the child’s other parent or, especially, themselves. Madelyn’s actions in Cruelest Mom defy the understanding of almost any viewer with their own children, which makes the fact that it was adapted almost directly from a real criminal case incredibly harrowing to contemplate.
THE Cruelest Mom The real story is the case of Kendra Gail Licari. Just like Madelyn in the Lifetime movie, Licari used a variety of covert methods to subject her own daughter, a teenager, to a sustained campaign of cyber harassment. Licari adopted several false personas, pretending to be other teenagers from the local community. Cyberbullying was so prolific that it caught the attention of local media, and law enforcement became increasingly involved (to the point that eventually the FBI even devoted resources to cybercrime to find out who was responsible).
Kendra Gail Licari, 43, was eventually arrested and charged in December 2022, and sentenced in 2023. She remained incarcerated at the Michigan Special Alternative Incarceration Center for Women for just over a year. Initially sentenced to between 19 months and five years in prison for two counts of stalking a minor, she was released on parole in August 2024. Licari’s crimes are among the most shocking examples of psychological abuse by a parent in the digital age — and something similar was seen on Lifetime’s Cruelest Mom makes them even more difficult to fully understand.
Kendra Gail Licari also tried to position herself as a hero
The Inspiration For Mommy Meanest worked with the police to capture a fictional cyberbully
One of the moments from the original Lifetime movie Cruelest Mom this showed how twisted Madelyn was when Mia first confronted her. When Mia told her mother that she knew Madelyn was behind the horrendous messages, both she and viewers were shocked by Madelyn’s response. Instead of apologizing or expressing remorse, Madelyn went on an angry tirade to justify her actions.
What’s most shocking is that Madelyn tried to convince Mia that she was a hero and that Mia should be grateful. The abusive mother told her daughter that she was the only reason Mia was able to escape bullying when she was younger. What’s more, Madelyn blamed Mia for her actions, explaining that it was Mia’s ingratitude that forced Madelyn’s hand and made the cyberbullying necessary.
In the case of real life that serves as Cruelest Mom true story, Kendra Gail Licari’s twisted need to be seen as a hero went a step further. Licari actively worked with authorities to help locate the person responsible for her daughter’s torment. She even worked with the mother of her daughter’s boyfriend, positioning herself in the local community as a model mother who would stop at nothing until her daughter’s online abuser was brought to justice.
Although Madelyn volunteered and began to help ‘investigate’ the cyberbullying alongside Mia, it was not to the same degree as Licari in the real-life case. Licari fully positioned himself as a heroic figure for the local media. Up until the time she was prosecuted, the local community (as well as, most likely, Licari’s own daughter) believed that her abusive father was a model of what a protective mother should be.
What Mom’s Real Mia Means Most was sent by your mother
The trial involved 349 pages of evidence
Throughout the Lifetime movie, the abusive texts and messages Mia has received are shown on screen, along with a total of how many messages she has received so far. Not only the volume of abuse Cruelest Mom shocking, but Madelyn used her knowledge of her daughter’s history and insecurities to ensure Mia couldn’t ignore the abuse.
Although the methods Madelyn used to torment Mia are incredibly similar to those Cruelest Mom true story, the content of the messages that Kendra Gail Licari sent to her daughter for more than a year was never disclosed. During his arraignment, it was revealed that 349 pages of evidence had been presented. It was also known that Licari sent abusive messages to her daughter about a dozen times a day, and the number of messages ran into the hundreds. However, it is not known exactly what was in these messages, although in court they were described as “disturbing” and “hateful” (via The morning sun).
Why Mom’s Real Madelyn Wanted to Bully Her Own Daughter
Licari’s motivations remain unknown
In Cruelest mother, Madelyn subjects Mia to a terrifying onslaught of hateful messages to try to bring the pair closer together. The pair had an incredibly close relationship during Mia’s childhood that, on the surface, seemed like the perfect mother-daughter bond. However, the reality is that Madelyn has become psychologically dependent on Mia’s affection.
When Mia became an independent young woman, Madelyn was unable to deal with her daughter’s lack of need. Madelyn began her campaign of psychological torment to destroy Mia’s confidence so that she could once again rely on her for emotional support and comfort.
While it is possible that this was also the reason Kendra Gail Licari subjected her daughter to a similar prolonged barrage of torment in real life, the known details of the Cruelest Mom the true story does not include his motivations. Licari confessed in full to her crimes, and part of the deal she made with authorities was that the case would not go to a jury trial.
This means many important details from the real case that inspired Cruelest mother, including why Licari did what he did, are not known. However, speaking to Local News 12 When Licari was charged, prosecutor David Barberi expressed his theories about what led Licari to psychologically abuse his own daughter to such a horrific degree. He suspected that the real mother Madelyn is based on had similar motivations to her fictional counterpart:
“Someone else coined the term, but called it a version of ‘cybernetic Munchausen syndrome,’ in the sense that this seems to be the type of behavior where you make someone feel bad or need you in their life because of you. of this behavior. “
How the inspiration for Mom Meanest carried out her crimes (and ended up getting caught)
Licari’s hate campaign against her own daughter was meticulously planned
In Cruelest mother, Madelyn is brought to justice when Mia makes her admit to her crimes while secretly on the phone with the police. The local police calmly walk through the door behind Mia, much to Madlyn’s shock, and the abusive father is arrested for his crimes. However, this is very different from Cruelest Mom true story, as the identification of Kendra Gail Licari as cyberbullying her daughter only came from a prolonged investigation involving many branches of law – including the FBI.
Mia managed to discover that Madelyn was behind the terrible cyberbullying campaign, but it wasn’t Kendra Gail Licari’s daughter who cracked the case in the true story. This aspect of Cruelest Mom the plot was entirely fictional, designed to bring an emotionally satisfying ending to the Lifetime film that positioned Mia as the heroine of her own story. In the real case, Licari was arrested after the FBI was called in to help local police. It was only with the additional cybercrime resources the FBI was able to provide that Licari was identified.
In the real case that Cruelest Mom which it is based on, Kendra Gail Licari managed to keep her activities secret using a virtual private network (VPN). Although local police began to suspect her in April 2022, It wasn’t until December of the same year that hard evidence compiled by the FBI was able to definitively prove that the multiple IP addresses from which the messages were sent could be traced back to Licari.
This is perhaps one of the biggest differences between the Cruelest Mom true story and the Lifetime movie. If the police had not received help from the FBI, it is unknown whether Licari would ever have been brought to justice. Fortunately, however, she was identified and the barrage of hate her daughter (and her daughter’s boyfriend) received was quickly stopped – although it’s highly likely that healing the emotional wounds she left on both teens could take years to heal. .