Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Betts.
Amy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Amy Betts. I am a mother, survivor, and advocate who has spent nearly twenty years fighting a broken family court system—and documenting, through my nonprofit Aidileys—how unchecked judicial and agency power destroys the very families it claims to protect.
I grew up in the Ohio Valley with a strong belief in truth, fairness, and that courts were designed to protect children. That belief was shattered in North Carolina, where my three children were fraudulently separated from me—not because I was unfit—but because a for-profit legal industry decided it was more lucrative to side with abusers than protect victims.
My youngest child, Bretley, was taken from me by her convicted abuser through a court order that was riddled with lies, issued without jurisdiction, and in complete violation of due process. Even when that fraudulent order was legally set aside, the system simply duplicated it. For over eleven years, my youngest daughter and I have been forcibly separated by ourabuser with help from these state systems,
while the courts use legal loopholes like Rooker-Feldman and abstention doctrines to avoid addressing the violations of our civil and constitutional rights.
But my fight hasn’t stopped with legal motions. When this injustice happened, I made a decision that would reshape the rest of my life: I went back to college. I enrolled in my undergraduate program while raising my youngest child—before she was taken– I used every class, every project, every assignment to sharpen my voice and deepen my understanding of how systems work—and how to reach people.
That’s how I found marketing—not just as a career skill, but as a survival tool. I realized that if the courts were working overtime to silence me, then I had to learn how to speak louder, clearer, and directly to the public. Marketing became my vehicle for resistance. I studied branding, communications, social strategy, and how to tell powerful stories that mobilize people to act. I applied every bit of that knowledge to expose what’s happening in family courts—not just to me, but to thousands of other mothers across the country.
That’s how Aidileys was born. It’s more than a nonprofit—it’s a movement. Through content creation, advocacy campaigns, and public education, we are now unmasking the for-profit custody racket that’s being disguised as “justice.” I turned my college education and marketing expertise into a powerful platform to reach media, lawmakers, and fellow parents who are still being silenced.
This system is not broken—it’s working exactly as designed. Family courts across the U.S. disproportionately target biological mothers, especially those in poverty or who speak up about abuse. Judges, attorneys, and court-appointed professionals create conflict, deny due process, and exploit legal loopholes to traffick children under the color of law. They use no-contact orders to cut us off from our children, and gag orders to block us from speaking out. They use public institutions—like schools and police—to enforce the erasure of safe, loving fit parents from their children’s lives.
My children—now young adults—have spent nearly their entire lives being told I abandoned them, when in reality I have never stopped fighting for them. Many, like my youngest, suffer from what experts call Stockholm syndrome—conditioned to believe that the abuse is love and that their safe parent is the enemy.
I now use every marketing tool in my belt to shine a light on this horror. From copywriting to content strategy, digital storytelling to community building—I have turned my life’s education into activism. Because when systems silence victims, we must learn to become louder than the lies.
Even now, as North Carolina celebrates passing (“Iryna’s Law”), we must be clear: this law is not about accountability. It is a judicial power grab disguised as reform. Until judicial immunity is abolished, there will be no real justice. No matter how many laws are passed, they mean nothing if judges and agencies are allowed to operate without oversight or consequence.
This is a civil and human rights crisis. And I stand here today not just as a mother, but as a strategist, an advocate, and a woman who transformed her pain into purpose.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I grew up in the quiet hills of Ohio, on a dirt road named after my family. It was a place where neighbors knew one another, but resources were far away—twenty minutes in either direction just to reach the nearest store.
I believed in the simple truths I thought were guaranteed: parents protect their children, the truth always comes to light, and justice prevails. If something terrible ever happened, I trusted that the police and courts would make it right.
I began to notice cracks in the systems I trusted. Over time, I would come to learn a harsh reality: absolute power corrupts absolutely.
My belief in the syatem was shattered almost instantly. What I entered was not a place of justice, but an industry that thrived on control, manipulation, and money. My husband discovered just how easily the system could be bent to his will, and he had no hesitation in using it against me.
By 2010, the family court had taken its toll. Through a custody ruling based on lies and inaccuracies, my ex-husband was granted primary physical custody of our children. Though we shared joint legal custody on paper, he wielded the order as a weapon, separating my children and I and controlling every interaction.
My world was upended. He dragged us into court relentlessly, filing motion after motion. False allegations from my ex-husband and anyone he could get to help him with his lies, landed me in jail on multiple occasions, His accusations were just that, no evidence needed and nothing was ever proven, yet his words alone were enough to justify keeping my children and I aparr. Even the schools sided with him, refusing me access to school functions, records, and every photograph of my own children.
The court accepted hearsay as fact, never bothering to verify claims. Witnesses were friends or acquaintances of my ex-husbands, sometimes people he paid. It didn’t matter. Judges allowed the narrative to stand, and my reputation as a mother was dragged through the mud.
I had entered the labyrinth of the family court industry, a place where truth and evidence were irrelevant. I hired attorneys, believing professional guidance would help, only to watch them prolong the conflict and twist my story for billable hours. Judges appeared complicit, encouraging the very chaos the system claimed to prevent.
What I once saw as a source of protection now revealed itself as a machine designed for profit—thriving not on resolution, but on endless conflict.
As the custody war deepened, my ex-husband escalated his tactics. It wasn’t enough for him to control me through the courts; he reached outside of them. He hired a man to rob my home, a man who soon began stalking me It wasn’t until later that I learned that the man I was seeing was this very man who had been doing these things to me.
In time, I became pregnant by him
This chapter of my life marked a turning point. I recognized that I couldn’t rely on anyone else to secure my future. I enrolled in college and pursued a degree in education, hoping it would provide a way to support herself and her children.
While I was pursuing my degree, something was born: Aidileys. At first, it was just a small family shoe store, something my children and I could do together. But it quickly became more than a business. It evolved into a mission, and then into a nonprofit organization—aidileys.org—dedicated to helping biological parents like myself and my children, who were caught in the family court’s web.
Through Aidileys, I began connecting with other parents experiencing the same injustices. What I found was heartbreaking but validating: my story was not an anomaly. Across the country, and the world, families were being torn apart by courts that thrived on prolonging conflict.
I learned that the family court system wasn’t designed to protect children or families at all—it was designed to profit from their destruction. Judges issued ex parte orders, no-contact directives, and gag orders with little regard for the law. Attorneys encouraged conflict to increase their billable hours. Schools and agencies complied with unlawful rulings. Every actor in the system seemed to benefit from keeping families divided.
Instead of silencing me, this realization fueled my fight. I organized protests, created support groups, wrote newsletters, and spoke on social media. Aidileys became both a lifeline and a rallying point. Parents who once felt isolated now had a community where their stories were heard and their struggles validated.
For me Aidileys wasn’t just an organization—it was resistance. It was proof that families could fight back against an industry designed to exploit them.
My decision to speak out through Aidileys came at a cost. The louder my voice grew, the more aggressive the retaliation became.
The most devastating blow came when I was accused of kidnapping my own children. The two fathers of my children not only fabricated the lie, but my youngest daughter had been with me since I gave birth to her. The charge was false—fabricated from the same pattern of lies the court had always embraced—but this time, the punishment was severe. I was arrested and incarcerated, stripped not only of my liberty but of my reputation.
Law school was grueling, especially while navigating ongoing court battles and rebuilding my life. But I thrived in the challenge. I poured her lived experience into my studies, connecting the dots between theory and reality in ways that few of her peers could. Every lecture, every textbook, every case analysis gave me more tools to understand how deeply corrupted the family court system had become—and how to resist it.
Even with my degree in hand, however, I faced the lasting scars of the system. My children had grown up under “orders” that kept us distant. Rebuilding those relationships was not simple, nor was healing from years of state-sanctioned kidnapping, which felt like the death of my children, and the abuse by the fathers continued. Most days the PTSD slowed me, and tge thoughts of the torture my children had to endure.
Aidileys became the bridge between my past and our future. It was not just about advocacy anymore—it was survival, healing, and education. Through the nonprofit, I created programs that helped parents understand the court system’s tactics, prepare for hearings, and find solidarity in community. I transformed my pain into a platform for change.
I found herself surrounded by women whose stories mirrored my own: mothers torn from their children, because of systems designed to exploit them. I realized the pattern wasn’t personal—it was systemic.
Now, with the support of my 21-year-old daughter and 19-year-old son by her side, Aidileys continues to grow as we go on to try to save my youngest daughter, their little sister.
What the system intended for destruction became the foundation for our mission.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
But Aidileys is more than a nonprofit — it’s a movement, a lifeline, and a voice for families silenced and shattered by systemic failure. Founded from lived experience, Aidileys (my kids names put together, Aidan, Madison, & Bretley) stands for the protection, restoration, and reunification of biological families that have been impacted by the U.S. family court and child welfare systems.
What sets us apart is that we are survivor-led. We’ve lived the trauma we now fight to expose — from unlawful removals and retaliatory court actions to no-contact orders and sealed cases that hide injustice. This lived perspective gives us a level of empathy, insight, and urgency that most systems lack.
We specialize in family court advocacy, public education, and documenting human rights violations. We’re known for equipping parents with the tools, templates, and legal knowledge to advocate for themselves — while also mobilizing complaint campaigns, legislative proposals, and volunteer-led investigations that support broader reform.
What we’re most proud of?
The community. Aidileys has cultivated a growing nationwide network of families, advocates, researchers, and volunteers who are standing together to say: No more. Every voice matters. Every case counts. And every act of courage contributes to changing the system.
In 2025, we’re proud to announce a new venture: Aidileys’ Coffee Stand — a mobile coffee trailer launching next summer to fund our advocacy work, create survivor-led job opportunities, and offer a safe public space for community healing and outreach. The coffee trailer isn’t just a business — it’s a platform. Every cup serves a purpose, every purchase supports a cause. Our slogan – serving coffee. Supporting families.
Aidileys is rebuilding what was broken — from families to trust in the system. Whether through legal support, public education, or serving up coffee with a mission, we are here to support what matters most: our children, our voices, and our right to justice.
What makes you happy?
There’s joy in helping a mother find her voice after being silenced by the court system.
And there’s hope in knowing that every document we file, every story we share, and every cup we serve from our new Aidileys’ Coffee Stand is part of something bigger
But most importantly, it’s my children. And doing things that i know will mean something to them. Because they never got to know me,, because they were kept from me their entire childhoods.
But Aidileys is where my kids can see what I have been doing while we were kept apart.
Pricing:
- Donations to help keep Aidileys going, can be found at . Aidileys.org
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aidileys.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aidileys?igsh=MXNqMzFuNDFpdm54Yw==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1A5E9ftdeQ/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aidileys
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@eastcoastfamilycourtreporter
