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Wife Swap with the Heene Family: Ballon Boy's Family on ABC Show

by Amy Judd | October 15, 2009 at 02:12 pm

3377 views | 41 Recommendations | 5 comments

Wife Swap, the popular ABC show, featured the Heene family in season 5; the Heene family is the one at the center of the controversy surrounding the balloon boy today, Falcon Heene.

Falcon Heene is the youngest son to Richard and Mauymi Heene, with two brothers Bradford and Ryo, and it is believed that he climbed in to a homemade hot air balloon earlier today and it took off. It was first thought that Falcon was on board the UFO shaped craft, but when it landed he was no where to be seen; Falcon Heene was found some time later.

Watch a wrap-up of the family on Wife Swap

The Heene family was featured on Wife Swap with the Martel family from Connecticut. The Heene family were described as adventurous and the Matel family were more withdrawn.

From their profile on ABC, they are described as living life on the edge. They are a storm chasing family, and the father Richard Heene studies magnetic fields. The parents frequently pull their children out of school to go on storm chasing missions and they even sleep in their clothes in case they have to leave at a moment's notice.

Mayumi Heene works hard on behalf of her husband, she maintains all their equipment, drives the 'storm-mobile', does the filming and takes care of the children and the house; Richard calls her his 'ninja wife'.

At home the family are as chaotic as a twister: the kids have no table manners and throw themselves around the house, and while Richard devotes every moment to his research, he expects Mayumi to cook, clean and run the house without any help.

Karen Martel who took part in the Wife Swap is horrified at the way the Heene children are allowed to run wild, and she thinks that Richard has a misogynistic attitude towards women.

The Heene Family was a favorite on the show and was invited back to be a part of the 100th episode with the Silver family.

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albertacowpoke

at 14:59 on October 15th, 2009

Interesting

marianmo

at 15:13 on October 15th, 2009

wonder what the real story is

158

at 19:12 on October 15th, 2009

A good article.

kwhat (not verified)

at 20:39 on October 15th, 2009

If you watch the demeaner of the father after little Falcon says " You said, we did it for the show." You can tell he is upset and does everything he can to take the attention away from that comment. I watched him on wife swap eating up the attention he was getting from it, ( obviously it wasnt enought). so i am not suprised at all the this is exactley what Falcon said it was." YOU SAID UM, UM WE DID THIS FOR A SHOW!"

eugines (not verified)

at 23:55 on October 17th, 2009

nice topic ...interesting<a href="www.eugines.info/2009/10/falcon-heene-is-ballon-boy-son-of.html"><b>Falcon Heene is the ballon boy Son of Richard Heene</b></a>