‘I’m trying to do what’s best for me’: Evicted millennial’s cringe-worthy TV interview

A DEADBEAT millennial son sued by his own parents to have him kicked out of home has given a cringe-worthy TV interview.

AN UNEMPLOYED 30-year-old man whose own parents sued him to evict him from the family home has denied being an “entitled” millennial while declaring he was just “trying to do what’s best for me”.

New York man Michael Rotondo made headlines after parents Mark and Christina were forced to take the drastic action against their lazy son, following repeated pleas and legal notices demanding he grow up and get out.

A judge in the Onondaga County Supreme Court this week ruled in the parents’ favour, ordering Mr Rotondo to comply with their numerous eviction notices since February this year. The self-described “businessman”, who recently lost custody of his young son, has lived at home rent-free for eight years.

In an interview with CNN, Mr Rotondo said he wanted to leave but complained about the way in which his parents went about it. “I don’t want to live there anymore,” he said. “It’s very tense, it’s very awkward, we have to share space. I’d prefer to get out.

“I would consider much of what they were doing to try to get me out as attacks, and I was just trying to do what’s best for me, which is trying to be bit more reasonable. I’ll leave, I don’t like living here, but I need reasonable time.

“The first notice I received, the February 2nd notice, was basically, ‘You have 14 days to leave before you’re outside in the winter.’ I made sure that wasn’t going to happen. I contacted the police department, I said is this something that could happen? And they’re like, ‘No, you just call us, they can’t do that.’”

The first letter read, “Michael, after a discussion with your mother, we have decided that you must leave this house immediately ... You have 14 days to vacate ... We will take whatever actions are necessary to enforce this decision.”

On February 13, they informed “Michael Joseph Rotondo” that he was “hereby evicted … effective immediately”. “You have heretofore been our guest and there is no lease or agreement that gives you any right to stay here without our consent,” it said.

They even offered him $1450 to “find a place to stay” and gave him advice including “organise the things you need for work and to manage an apartment” and “sell the other things you have that have any significant value”.

“There are jobs available even for those with a poor work history like you. Get one — you have to work!” they wrote. Each letter was signed, “Mark and Christina Rotondo”.

Michael Rotondo during an eviction proceeding in Syracuse, New York. Picture: Douglass Dowty/The Syracuse Newspapers via AP

The 30-year-old has refused to vacate the family home after eight years, ignoring pleas and legal threats from his parents. Picture: WSTM TV

Asked by CNN if he was trying to get a job, he said he had “plans to be able to provide myself with the income I need to support myself, but it’s not something that’s going to come together tomorrow”.

“I’m trying to do what’s best for me,” he said. “I do want to leave and I want to leave as soon as possible, but it’s not tomorrow, I don’t think it should have to be tomorrow.”

But Mr Rotondo said he had no interest in reconciling with his parents after they first attempted to kick him out soon after he lost custody of his young son. “Right after that, they were like, ‘Don’t worry about your case’,” he said.

“That’s a full-time job setting up an appeal for an order like that for custody and visitation. ‘What you need to do right now is get a full-time job and get health insurance or we’re going to throw you out.’ It was devastating to lose my son. I was done with them after that.”

Asked by host Brooke Baldwin whether he was an “entitled millennial”, Mr Rotondo bizarrely claimed he wasn’t because he wasn’t a “liberal”.

“I would say that I’m really not a member of that demographic, of that group,” he said. “I’m a very conservative person. The millennials … are very liberal in their ideology. When people speak to the millennials and their general nature as a millennial, they speak to more liberal leanings in my opinion.”

Baldwin said a “millennial is a millennial based on the year you were born”. Mr Rotondo then appeared to agree, declaring, “I am a millennial.”

In a separate interview with TMZ, he said didn’t think his parents were good people. “I would say no,” he said. “I just think that when you attack someone, who’s supposed to be someone you love, it reflects poorly.”

Earlier, Mr Rotondo said he would comply with the judge’s order as long as it didn’t force him out within 30 days. “I want three months. I think that’s reasonable,” he told the New York Post.

[e-mail]