Photos from Bandera
The long-silent matriarch of the Barretto clan has finally broken her silence — and she’s not holding back. In a fiery sit-down with Ogie Diaz uploaded on October 19, 89-year-old Inday Barretto delivered explosive accusations against her former son-in-law, actor Raymart Santiago, claiming years of abuse, betrayal, and humiliation toward her daughter, Claudine Barretto.
“You married a star, then destroyed her”
Speaking with a trembling but defiant voice, Mommy Inday recalled how warmly their family once welcomed Raymart. “We treated him like our own son,” she said. “But he married my daughter because she was Claudine Barretto. When she stopped being that celebrity image, he stopped loving her.”
In a string of shocking claims, Inday accused Raymart of mistreating Claudine emotionally and physically — even alleging that he humiliated her in front of others. “He hurt her, and it wasn’t enough — he had to disgrace her, too,” she said. “Their child saw it. Imagine, a little boy seeing that?”
According to Inday, Claudine worked hard to provide for their children while Raymart “took properties that weren’t his.” “He had nothing of his own,” she claimed. “Everything came from my daughter.”
“Dragged like an animal”
Inday’s tone grew angrier as she recounted a night she says she’ll never forget — the night Claudine called her, crying for help. “She was screaming on the phone,” Inday said. “When I arrived, people on the street were already shouting, ‘Stop it, Raymart!’ They said he dragged her like a pig to slaughter. My daughter ran, hid, but he caught her.”
By the time Inday and her late husband Miguel arrived, she said Claudine was “covered in mud,” trembling, and barely conscious. “We found her on the terrace,” she said. “She wasn’t my daughter anymore — she looked like a ghost.”
“I saw it in her eyes”
The family matriarch claimed she didn’t need anyone to tell her about the abuse. “Mothers know,” she said. “You don’t need words when your child looks at you like that. I knew something horrible happened.”
At one point in the interview, Inday tearfully described an incident she says she’ll never forget. “When Claudine came down the stairs, she collapsed into her father’s arms,” she said. “Her body was cold, like ice. And that’s when I knew — he did something unforgivable. Something no man should ever do to a woman, especially his wife.”
“Don’t call yourself a man”
Mommy Inday then addressed Raymart directly: “You called yourself a man? You humiliated her, made her kneel, made her beg for love. You’re not a man — you’re an animal.”
She claimed Claudine, at her lowest point, even knelt before Raymart, pleading for him to talk to her, only to be ignored. “That’s when I said, enough. Nobody makes my daughter kneel.”
From fairytale to tragedy
Inday reminisced about the start of the relationship — the grand wedding that many called one of showbiz’s most beautiful. “Raymart asked for her hand and promised, ‘I will never hurt her,’” she recalled. “But that promise turned into a curse.”
The Barretto matriarch said things changed after Claudine suffered postpartum depression. “She was never the same after giving birth,” she admitted. “And instead of helping her heal, he broke her more.”
“Not drugs — lies”
Mommy Inday also addressed old rumors that Claudine had turned to substance abuse. “She was never an addict,” she insisted. “When someone wants to hide their own guilt, they invent stories. People believe it because she’s a celebrity.”
A mother’s last stand
At 89, Inday says she’s speaking up not for fame, but for truth. “I kept quiet out of shame,” she confessed. “But I’m too old to stay silent now. No one gets to destroy my daughter and walk away.”
The explosive revelations have reignited public curiosity — and controversy — surrounding the long-feuding Barretto and Santiago families. As Mommy Inday herself hinted, “This is just part one. The rest of the story, you haven’t heard yet.”
Part 2 of the Barretto tell-all drops soon — and if the first half is any indication, it’s only going to get darker.