The Respondent

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

With The Respondent: Exposing the Cartel of Family Law, Hollywood veteran Greg Ellis delivers a gripping, unvarnished first-person account of family breakdown and the social, political, and legal forces that are fueling this national health emergency. It further exposes and condemns a gender bias that presumes that fathers are less effective caregivers.

Family breakdown is the single greatest threat to American society. Every day, more than four thousand children lose a parent because of our archaic and inhumane family-court system. Every day, ten divorced men commit suicide. And now, one in three children in our country are without their father.

The Respondent is Ellis’s personal story about a Hollywood dream razed by internal and external forces. Part memoir, part meditation, and part manifesto, it’s a timely and heartrending portrait of perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of the American legal system. Through its candor and moral strength, The Respondent offers guidance and hope. As such, it’s an indispensable read for not only parents enduring the grief of child separation, but all interested in learning about the gross overreach and unrelenting brutality of family law.

Critics Review

  • “You will need some help. This book is that help.”

    Alec Baldwin, three-time Emmy Award winner
  •  “I encourage you to read Greg Ellis’s book, The Respondent, a fresh and updated take from an American divorce court, where some things have changed (now men are seeking—and in some instances even gaining—sole custody of their children, either justifiably or as the result of the malignant parental alienation that plagued them for so long) and some things are, unconscionably, the same. Divorce court, divorce mediation, custody evaluations, forensic accountings…It’s all a foreign land to most people and one where you can easily lose your sanity coming to terms with the senseless rules that govern there, rules that will potentially affect the rest of your life. You will need some help. This book is that help.”

    Alec Baldwin, three-time Emmy Award winner
  • The Respondent is both a chilling reminder and essential therapy for anyone navigating the recrimination and trauma that is modern American divorce. It is also both diagnosis and prescription, mediating on the depths of the crisis and the way out. Greg Ellis sets the record straight and shatters the myths of divorce court. If you’re trapped in the dungeon that is the family court system, The Respondent should be your constant companion.” 

    Johnny Depp, three-time Academy Award nominee

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.