Taylor Parker’s brother admits children were put ‘on the back burner’ when she was chasing Wade

We get a hint of how Taylor Parker treated her kids in Netflix’s Maternal Instinct, but her family, including her brother and mother, have exposed what she was really like as a mother.

Parker, who was convicted of murdering pregnant mum Reagan Simmons Hancock and kidnapping her unborn daughter in 2022, was described by her mother and brother during the punishment phase of her capital murder trial.

According to KTAL, her mother, Shonna Prior, told jurors that Parker loved her children deeply and insisted she had been a good mother.

During her testimony, defence attorney Jeff Harrelson showed jurors family photographs of Parker with her children and played recorded jail calls between Parker and them.

“You know these kids,” Harrelson asked. “How do they feel about their mom?”

“They love her,” Prior replied.

Prior also pointed to conversations Parker had with her children from jail, including one where she encouraged her daughter to get a good night’s sleep before a test at school.

However, Parker’s brother, Zachary Morton, painted a more complicated picture when he took the stand.

‘It was all about her at one specific time’

via Netflix

While he said Parker generally took care of her children, he admitted there were periods when they were not her main priority.

“But there were times when she was not such a good mother?” Harrelson asked.

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“Yes, when she was chasing another man,” Morton replied.

When asked for an example, he pointed directly to Parker’s relationship with Wade Griffin.

“I would say when she was chasin’ Wade would be the most recent. She didn’t necessarily give enough attention to (Parker’s daughter) at that time.”

Morton said he recognised the behaviour because it reminded him of their own childhood. “When dad was chasing other women or drugs, we were put on the back burner,” he testified.

“It seemed like when Taylor was chasing another man, instead of the focus being on her children, it was on herself. It was all about her at one specific time.”

He also described a very different version of his sister during her marriage to Tommy Wacasey.

“It seemed like when Taylor was with Tommy that they loved each other, they cared about each other… nothing else mattered but her family. But after weight loss surgery, Taylor’s demeanour completely changed. Instead of her focus being on her family, it was on what she wants to do with her personal life, or what more she could do for herself, in a sense.”

Prior, meanwhile, continued to defend her daughter’s relationship with her children

via Netflix

She told jurors Parker was always accommodating when she wanted to spend time with her grandchildren and said she never believed her daughter would stop her from seeing them.

When asked whether she avoided confronting Parker about her fake pregnancy because she feared losing access to the children, Prior answered, “No, when I wanted to see the kids, she let me see the kids. She was always accommodating when I wanted the kids.”

Maternal Instinct is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.