Filmmaker and actor Tyler Perry has been supporting the Turpin family, who were rescued from their California home in 2018 after enduring years of neglect and abuse.
Oprah Winfrey recently shared Perry’s philanthropic actions during an event in California where he was honored with The Paley Honors Award for his contributions to media. Winfrey explained that Perry first learned about the Turpin family from a television special featuring Diane Sawyer and decided to help. According to People magazine, Perry has been discreetly assisting the nearly grown Turpin children, ensuring they receive financial, psychological, and emotional assistance.
During the ceremony on December 4, Winfrey expressed, “Until this moment, no one has known that Tyler Perry has been taking care of those now almost grown children, making sure they have the financial, the psychological and the emotional support to grow themselves forward.”
The 13 children’s parents, David and Louise Turpin, were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in April 2019, more than a year after their 17-year-old daughter, Jordan Turpin, escaped their Perris home through a window and called police using a deactivated cell phone.
David and Louise Turpin withheld food from their children, limited their bathroom use, and allowed them to shower only once a year. The children, who ranged in age from 2 to 29 when they were rescued in January 2018, suffered physical and cognitive impairments due to the years of neglect.
Jordan Turpin previously told ABC that she and her siblings planned their escape for two years, though she was compelled to act as they were moving to Oklahoma the next day. Additionally, Jennifer Turpin recounted her parents instructing the older children to put her younger, unruly siblings in locked dog kennels.
Jennifer Turpin recounted feeling relief as she woke up in a hospital the morning after being rescued.
“Music was playing, I got up,” she said. “I made sure there was a little bit of a floor cleared out and I danced.”
[Feature Photo: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP; Facebook]
