The Mommy Meanest true story adds another level of terror to director Greg Beeman’s 2024 thriller - as the plot, which is already among the worst nightmares of most parents and teens alike, is based on true events. Cyberbullying has driven a tragic number of teens to take their own lives over the last few decades, so it’s no surprise that Madelyn (Lisa Rinna) in Mommy Meanest decides to take matters into her own hands when her daughter, Mia (Briana Skye) becomes the target of relentless online harassment.

Initially, Mia is appreciative of how her Mom seems to jump to her defense. However, things take a darker turn when Mia learns that the online monster driving her mental health to lows she could never have imagined is, in fact, Madelyn herself. The Lifetime movie shows an incredibly disturbing form of child abuse - and it’s made all the more harrowing by the fact that Mommy Meanest is based on real events, as is Lisa Rinna's incredibly evil Mom character.

The Mommy Meanest True Story Explained

Madelyn Is Based On Kendra Gail Licari

The fact that Mommy Meanest is based on a true story adds an extra layer of discomfort to the already disturbing Lifetime movie. It’s the nightmare of almost any parent that their child would be subjected to a prolonged campaign of cyberbullying - especially at the hands of the child’s other parent or, especially, themselves. Madelyn’s actions in Mommy Meanest defy comprehension for almost every viewer with a child of their own, which makes the fact that it was adapted almost directly from a real criminal case incredibly harrowing to contemplate.

The Mommy Meanest true story is the case of Kendra Gail Licari. Much like Madelyn in the Lifetime movie, Licari used a variety of covert methods to subject her own daughter, a teenager, to a sustained campaign of cyber harassment. Licari adopted multiple fake personas, pretending to be other teenagers in the local community. The cyberbullying was so prolific that it gained the attention of local media, and law enforcement became increasingly involved (to the point that, eventually, the FBI even dedicated cybercrime resources to uncover who was responsible).

43-year-old Kendra Gail Licari was eventually arrested and charged in December 2022, and sentenced in 2023. She remained incarcerated at Michigan's Special Alternative Incarceration Women’s Facility for just over a year. Initially sentenced to between 19 months and five years in jail on two counts of stalking a minor, she was released on parole in August 2024. Licari’s crimes are among the most shocking examples of psychological abuse by a parent in the digital age - and seeing similar in Lifetime’s Mommy Meanest makes them even more difficult to fully comprehend.

Kendra Gail Licari Also Tried To Position Herself As A Hero

The Inspiration For Mommy Meanest Worked With The Police To Catch A Fictional Cyberbully

One of the moments in the original Lifetime movie Mommy Meanest that showed just how warped Madelyn was came when Mia first confronted her. When Mia told her Mom that she knew Madelyn was behind the horrendous messages, both she and viewers were shocked at Madelyn’s response. Rather than apologize or express remorse, Madelyn instead launched into an angry tirade to justify her actions.

Most shockingly, Madelyn tried to convince Mia that she was a hero, and that Mia should be grateful. The abusive mother told her daughter that she was the only reason Mia had managed to escape bullying when she was younger. What’s more, Madelyn then blamed Mia for her actions, explaining that it was Mia’s ingratitude that forced Madelyn’s hand and made the cyberbullying necessary.

In the real-life case that serves as the Mommy Meanest true story, Kendra Gail Licari’s twisted need to be seen as a hero went a step further. Licari actively worked with law enforcement to help track down the person responsible for her daughter’s torment. She even worked with the mother of her daughter's boyfriend, positioning herself in the local community as a model parent who would stop at nothing until her daughter’s online ab was brought to justice.

While Madelyn offered and began to help ‘investigate’ the cyberbullying alongside Mia, it wasn’t to the same degree as Licari in the real-life case. Licari fully positioned herself as a heroic figure for local media. Right up until the moment she was prosecuted the local community (as well as, in all likelihood, Licari’s own daughter) believed the abusive parent was a paragon of what a protective mother should be.

What The Real Mia From Mommy Meanest Was Sent By Her Mother

The Trial Involved 349 Pages Of Evidence

Throughout the Lifetime movie, the abusive texts and messages Mia received are shown on-screen, along with a running total of how many she’d been sent so far. Not only was the volume of abuse in Mommy Meanest shocking, but Madelyn used her knowledge of her daughter’s history and insecurities to ensure that Mia couldn’t ignore the abuse.

While the methods Madelyn used to torment Mia are incredibly similar to the Mommy Meanest true story, the content of the messages Kendra Gail Licari sent her daughter for over a year was never made public. During her prosecution, it was revealed that 349 pages of evidence were submitted. It was also known that Licari would send her daughter abusive messages around a dozen times a day, and the number of messages ran into the hundreds. However, exactly what was in these messages isn’t known, although in court they were described as “disturbing” and “hateful” (via The Morning Sun).

Why Did The Real Madelyn From Mommy Meanest Cyberbully Her Own Daughter

Licari’s Motivations Remain Unknown

In Mommy Meanest, Madelyn submits Mia to a horrific onslaught of hateful messages to try and bring the pair closer together. The pair had an incredibly close relationship during Mia’s childhood which, on the surface, seemed like the perfect Mother-Daughter bond. However, the reality was that Madelyn had become psychologically dependent on Mia’s affection.

When Mia became a young woman with her own independence, Madelyn couldn’t handle her daughter no longer needing her. Madelyn started her campaign of psychological torment to destroy Mia’s confidence so that she’d once again rely on her for emotional and comfort.

While it’s possible this was also Kendra Gail Licari’s reason for subjecting her daughter to a similar prolonged barrage of torment in real life, the known details of the Mommy Meanest true story don’t include her motivations. Licari confessed to her crimes in full, and part of the deal she made with law enforcement was that the case wouldn’t go to a jury trial.

This means many key details of the real case that inspired Mommy Meanest, including why Licari did what she did, aren’t known. However, speaking to Local 12 News when Licari was charged, prosecutor David Barberi voiced his theories about what drove Licari to psychologically abuse her own daughter to such a horrendous degree. He suspected that the real mother who Madelyn is based on had similar motivations to her fictional counterpart:

"Someone else coined the term, but they called it a version of ‘cyber Munchausen’s syndrome’ in a sense that this seems to be the type of behavior where you’re making somebody feel bad or need you in their life because of this behavior."

How The Inspiration For Mommy Meanest Carried Out Her Crimes (And Was Eventually Caught)

Licari’s Campaign Of Hatred Against Her Own Daughter Was Meticulously Planned

In Mommy Meanest, Madelyn is brought to justice when Mia gets her to it her crimes while secretly being on the phone with the police. Local law enforcement calmly comes through the door behind Mia, much to Madlyn’s shock, and the abusive parent is arrested for her crimes. However, this is very different from the Mommy Meanest true story, as identifying Kendra Gail Licari as her daughter’s cyberbully only came from a prolonged investigation involving many branches of the law - including the FBI.

Mia was able to figure out that Madelyn was behind the campaign of horrific cyberbullying, but the daughter of Kendra Gail Licari wasn’t the one who cracked the case in the true story. This aspect of the Mommy Meanest plot was entirely fictional, conceived to bring an emotionally satisfying end to the Lifetime movie that positioned Mia as the hero of her own story. In the real case, Licari was caught after the FBI was drafted in to assist local police. It was only with the additional cybercrime resources that the FBI could provide that Licari was identified.

In the real case that Mommy Meanest is based on, Kendra Gail Licari managed to keep her activities secret by using a virtual private network (VPN). While local police had started to suspect her by April 2022, it wasn’t until December of the same year that the concrete evidence compiled by the FBI was able to definitively prove the various IP addresses the messages had been sent from could all be traced back to Licari.

This is perhaps one of the biggest differences between the Mommy Meanest true story and the Lifetime movie. Had the police not received the assistance of the FBI it’s unknown if Licari would have ever been brought to justice. Thankfully, however, she was identified and the barrage of hatred her daughter (and her daughter’s boyfriend) received was brought to a swift halt - though it’s highly likely that healing the emotional wounds she left on both teens could take years to heal.