All You Need To Know About 'Little Mermaid' Halle Bailey's Dad Douglas And His History Of Domestic Violence
For a bit, things were not peachy in Georgia.
Getty Halle Bailey of Chloe x Halle, who “possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence, and substance—plus a glorious singing voice,” is set to be the new Ariel in Disney’s next live-adaptation of “The Little Mermaid.” Before Halle Bailey rose to fame, though, her father Douglas Bailey was charged with cruelty to children. Court documents dating back to 2007 obtained by Radar show that Douglas was once “arrested and charged with multiple criminal charges stemming from a violent incident that took place at the family’s Georgia home.”
Who exactly is Douglas Bailey? Read on for details on Halle Bailey’s dad and the child abuse claims.
1. He’s a former stockbroker and now his daughters’ full-time manager.
The Baileys moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles before Halle graduated from high school in 2018. He and wife Courtney, an HR recruiter for Twitter, have been dedicated to their girls since day one. Douglas writes poetry and “the best birthday cards ever,” as everyone in the family agrees. Chloe and Halle credit him for encouraging them as lyricists (though they joke that he’s tone deaf). When they were 8 and 10, Chloe told The Cut in a 2016 interview, “Our dad sat us down and taught us about song structure and all the figurative language tools, like similes and metaphors and alliterations.” They’d invent songs around the dinner table. “One of our first songs was ‘What Makes You Sad?’” Halle added. “Our dad was like, ‘Just write what you feel. Let’s start with what makes you sad.’"
2. In November of 2007, the state of Georgia charged Douglas.
The charges were two counts of family violence battery, simple battery, disorderly conduct and cruelty to children in the third degree. According to prosecutors, Radar Online reports that Douglas was accused of “intentionally causing visible bodily harm” to his wife. A criminal arrest warrant accused Douglas of punching Courtney “in the face numerous times” on September 29th, 2007.
3. The “disorderly conduct” charge comes from his allegedly “tumultuous” behavior after placing his wife “in reasonable fear of her life, limb or health.”
After Douglas’s detainment, the criminal case was put on hold for nine months so he could attend and complete a domestic violence intervention program. Programs like these across the country work to educate abusers, prevent victims from learning to accept violence in relationships, better institutional responses to violence, and increase public awareness about causes and solutions. While Douglas was in this program, he was ordered to have no contact with Courtney during that time.
4. Despite the allegations, Halle and Chloe appear to have a loving relationship with him.
They watch sports with him, take advice from him, and appreciate when he stands up for them (he told The Cut that he turned down multiple casting agents when they would ask if the girls could straighten their hair—the agents never called back when he said no). When their popularity skyrocketed and they appeared on shows like Ellen and Radio Disney’s The Next Big Thing (like American Idol for kids), he quit his job to manage them full time. If that doesn’t scream dedicated father, I don’t know what does.
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5. Initially, he was against his daughters’ sharing their videos on YouTube.
But Chloe and Halle persuaded him. They call their father the smartest human being they know. “I said, ‘Absolutely not!’” Doug told The Cut. “They said, ‘Please, dad, please!’ And they got me, because they’re girls. Next thing you know, The Ellen Show is calling, after I’m telling them don’t put it up. I guess I was wrong.”
6. But he lets them handle their own conference calls and business meetings.
It’s just part of their education, he says. He goes in with them, but he stays quiet. “I tell them, ‘Girls, I’m not going to say anything.’ I’m going to sit here, and I’m your crutch if you need it, but I want you to lead because you need to learn how to conduct your business this way.’” Their mother had a similar parenting approach: she would take them to auditions when they were toddlers because she “knew from her experience in HR that the audition process would be good for creating self-esteem and comfort around strangers.” She wanted to build a foundation of confidence for them—“public speaking, knowing how to meet people, to read scripts and rehearse, and if they got the gig, even better.”
Wow. They really taught their girls how to seas the day.
Leah Scher is an ENFP finishing her degree at Brandeis University. She's an alumna of the Kenyon Review Young Writer's Workshop the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. She's passionate about Judaism, poetry, film, satire, astrology, spirituality, and sexual health.