Patty Harpenau finds it incredibly difficult that she still has no contact with her son Dotan. She makes a cry for help. “I hope he doesn’t wait until I’m DEAD.”
Patty Harpenau (64) is starting to run out of patience. She does not understand that her son Dotan (37) no longer wants to have contact with her. The conflict arose sometime during Christmas, when he was angry with Patty’s then boyfriend Kees Bannink, who turned out to have an illegitimate child. She broke up with him and he is now dead, but Dotan remains angry.
‘It is a pity’
Patty has been making frantic attempts for years to get Dotan’s attention in the media, but it is in vain. “It’s still quiet. It is a pity. He’s doing amazingly, has new songs, Carré sold out, but no phone call. Maybe it still needs some time. I don’t know,” she says Weekend.
Dotan does not respond to her contact attempts, she says. “Is it indicative that he only thinks about himself and does not put himself in your shoes, what this is like for you?” asks a reporter from the magazine.
Family dinner
Patty reacts reluctantly. “I’m not going to tell my son, of whom I am very proud, whether or not he should take responsibility. I find that presumptuous. I just think it’s a shame. And when you see what caused it… At The Family Dinner, people have been arguing about nothing for years, and that is the case with us too.”
She thinks it’s a real shame. “It’s about nothing at all. Recently a friend of mine said, “Isn’t it true that some artists need pain to write?” Do you understand what I mean? If that’s it. But I’m not getting any younger, I’m turning 65. Then I think: come on.”
DEAD
Does Patty think things will turn out okay with her angry son? “I would not know. I hope he doesn’t wait until I’m dead. But what can I do? I called him, emailed him and begged him.”
She sighs: “In my experience, if you had predicted this to me, I would never have believed you. Never. We were very close.”