The ‘heartfelt letter’ of a boy in Hanoi about living with his stepmother is causing a stir in public opinion.

A recent post shared 3 videos and 5 diary pages of a boy in Hanoi, recounting the process of living with his father and stepmother. In the “heartfelt letter for help”, the boy said that his stepmother beat him with a phone, a glass bottle, a spoon…

One of the videos extracted from the camera attached to the post also recorded the image of a woman using a phone to hit the boy on the head and making demands such as making him stand, face down on the table, not sitting on a chair…

The scene of the boy being beaten recorded by the camera and the “heartfelt letter” caused a storm on the internet. Photo cut from the clip
The “heartfelt letter” and the scene of child abuse in the video made viewers angry. The post was widely shared on all online forums on the morning of September 13.

Speaking to VietNamNet reporter, Ms. V. (born in 1963, Hoa Xa commune, Hanoi) confirmed that she is the grandmother of the boy in the above incident. The boy’s name is D.C.H. (born in 2012), currently living with his father in Kien Hung ward, Hanoi. She said that the incident happened in February 2025 but was only recently revealed.

Ms. V. said that H. lives with his father and stepmother in an apartment in Kien Hung ward. Living in the countryside, Ms. V. only knows how to trust that her son and daughter-in-law can give H. a full life both materially and spiritually.

Ms. V. shared that for about a year now, every time she meets H., she sees that he is quiet and has a thin body, so she can’t help but worry. She often reminds her son to pay more attention and take care of him.

“My son is very busy with work, and he has two more twins with his new wife. I worry that he won’t take good care of baby H., so I often remind him. Every time, my son encourages me to rest assured,” said Ms. V.

In early 2025, Ms. V. and her husband unexpectedly received a phone call from their son, calling them at home to resolve a family matter. When they arrived, she was shocked to learn that the matter that needed to be resolved was that baby H. was being abused by her stepmother.

“It turned out that my son realized something was different about baby H., so he checked the family camera. Then, he asked my son to write down what happened in his daily life while living with his stepmother.

The letter, which was said to be from the boy, was shared and caused a stir in public opinion.

After reading the 5-page article, along with the detailed events, the boy’s father was devastated and immediately called us to his house to resolve the matter. The boy’s stepmother initially denied it, then apologized and said that she had postpartum depression, which was why she acted that way,” Ms. V. recounted.

Ms. V. shared that the moment she read her grandson’s “heartfelt letter” and watched some videos recording the scene of him being beaten by his mother, she was shocked and heartbroken. “Right after that day, my family took H. to his aunt’s house to stay, and my son decided to get a divorce. 1-2 months ago, the children’s divorce proceedings were completed. About 2 weeks ago, H. moved back to live with his father,” Ms. V. recounted.

“He is a very good and gentle boy. No matter how he was treated, he never complained or shared with his father or grandparents. I didn’t write it down until my dad asked me to. Now the law will deal with the matter. I just hope my grandchild can live in peace,” Ms. V. cried as she shared.

Meanwhile, sharing with PV Dan Viet on the afternoon of September 13, Ms. D.T.B. (the child’s aunt) said that the child’s father is Mr. D.V.H. (41 years old). In 2010, Mr. H. married Ms. N.T.H.N., but in 2014, she unfortunately passed away in a traffic accident. Mr. H. and his ex-wife had a son together, D.C.H. (13 years old this year).

After their mother passed away, Mr. H. and his son depended on each other until 2022, when Mr. H. remarried Ms. N.T.T. (40 years old) and then continued to give birth to twins (1 boy, 1 girl).

According to Ms. B., in early 2025, when Mr. H. and his wife and children returned to their hometown, the family saw that their grandson had many unusual symptoms, so they warning Mr. H. Mr. H. then checked the camera from many days ago and was surprised to find that his wife had many inappropriate behaviors with H.

“When I found out about the incident and saw the camera and the letter he wrote, not only me but everyone in the family was extremely upset, heartbroken and felt sorry for him. However, after the incident, everyone in the family tried to restrain themselves so that everything would go smoothly and not be noisy because Mr. H. and Ms. T. also had 2 children together. The family also let the boy temporarily stop going to school to stay with relatives for a few days to stabilize due to psychological trauma and panic,” Ms. B. said.

Ms. B. also said that after calming down for a few days, relatives encouraged the boy to continue going to school. After the above incident, Mr. H. also decided to divorce. However, recently, Ms. T. has had some bad actions, the family was upset so they decided to bring the matter to public attention.

“My nephew is very obedient and gentle. No matter how he was treated, he never complained or shared with his father, grandparents or anyone in the family. Thinking back, I feel so sorry for him. After the incident was shared, this morning Kien Hung Ward Police also contacted my brother to verify and clarify,” Ms. B. added.