Nick Cassavetes Responds: Ex-Wife and Family ‘Fugitives From the Law’

Nick Cassavetes is speaking out on social media after “taking a beating” after writing on social media that his ex-wife kidnapped their 13-year-old daughter.

The Notebook director’s ex-wife’s mother told TMZ on Wednesday that Cassavetes was “evil” and lying about his daughter being taken from him.

Now, Cassavetes is replying to comments on his emotional Instagram post in which he maintains that he’s telling the truth about the domestic situation.

“I’m taking a beating on social media right now,” he wrote in the caption of his post on Wednesday. “But the facts remain. Judge mandated court orders to return Barbie to her father are in place. Heather Wahlquist has failed to appear for custody hearings. She and her relatives are now fugitives from the law. My only agenda is to get my daughter back. If they’re telling the truth, then why are they running from the cops?”

“You’re not taking a beating at all – the comments on [ex-wife Linda Massad]’s fake crying video are proof the public is on YOUR SIDE,” someone wrote in the comments.

Cassavetes responded to the comment, “yea, she’s always been a lousy actress. I’ve directed her twice.”

Earlier in the day, Massad’s mother, Heather Wahlquist, whom Cassavetes has accused of being an accomplice in Massad’s alleged kidnapping, said that Cassavetes has hired a “hitman” to intimidate her, Massad and Massad’s sister, Jeanette Massad Anderson. The grandmother also claims Cassavetes has sent men to jump the fence of their home and bang on the doors late at night.

TMZ reports that Massad said Cassavetes strong-armed Wahlquist into giving him some custody rights over Barbie, but the family is afraid he’s planning to take her and run.

Cassavetes maintains that he has not seen or heard from his daughter in over a month.

“I don’t know if she is okay or not,” he said on Tuesday, “and I am extremely concerned for her well being.”

“He knew every minute where his child was,” Massad said Wednesday. She confirmed that she, Wahlquist and daughter Barbarelle “Barbie” Cassavetes have been living in Oklahoma, where the child has entered a new school and made a life for herself.

Cassavetes alleged that Wahlquist took their daughter Barbie from home last month without his knowledge and disconnected her phone. He filed a police report claiming that his estranged wife is in violation of their custody agreement and has practically kidnapped their child.

Wahlquist left Cassavetes in 2012, and her mother said her daughter’s exit is the real issue.

“She’s never denied him of seeing her child. Never,” Massad said. “He wants revenge against my daughter. This is not about his child, it’s about my daughter leaving him.”

Barbie is Cassavetes’ youngest of three children.