The parents of teenage sailor Abby Sunderland ran into their own squall Monday, answering criticism that her father was working on a reality TV show deal as the 16-year-old set off on her round-the-world trip.
Laurence Sunderland told reporters outside the family’s Thousand Oaks home that he had been approached about a reality TV show months ago with Magnetic Entertainment, a Studio-city based production company.
However, he said he cut ties with Magnetic a few weeks after Abby set off on her solo voyage due to a dispute with producers. The father said he wanted a show that would depict his family as a kind of modern-day Swiss Family Robinson, with “inspiring kids doing inspirational things.”
The TV deal went sour just weeks into Abby’s journey, the father said, when the producers were unable to sell his concept. Sunderland said he learned that one of Magnetic’s partners was planning to take a different angle: that Laurence and his wife, Marianne, were sending their daughter on an all but certain death trip.
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