We were recently informed that Ashley Kidwell was arrested again in Kershaw County, South Carolina.
To many who’ve followed her story, this latest arrest doesn’t come as a surprise, but rather a deeply familiar heartbreak. Ashley’s name has appeared in our reports before—an emblem of how deeply domestic trauma, addiction, and generational abuse can wound a person.
Her story begins long before this arrest. It begins when she gathered the courage to leave a toxic marriage and moved in with, as Ashley stated, her true love, Clint Doran, a children’s Rights Advocate, speaker, and supporter of Family Court Reform. Clint sits on the Board of Parental Alienation Support International (PASI) and has counseled approximately 6,000 parents dealing with parental alienation. Ashley stated that her relationship with Clint was never planned, but she finally found the person she was meant to be with.
For six years, Ashley and Clint lived together in Columbia, South Carolina, where she began to speak out not only about her abusive husband, but also about the toxic relationship with her mother, Jaimie Domingo Russell.
A Mother’s Control
Ashley claimed that her mother actively worked to keep her from regaining any sense of self-worth. According to Ashley and Clint, Jaimie supplied Ashley with unprescribed drugs, which Ashley called Mommy’s Medicine, including an incident where Jaimie brought a Ziploc bag filled with approximately 100 Adderall pills and a large bottle of vodka to Clint and Ashley’s home, in an effort to keep her subdued. This wasn’t an isolated incident.
Before her relationship with Clint, Ashley’s only protection from her mother’s influence was her older brother, who had served as a father figure. Tragically, he died from an overdose while staying at Jaimie’s home.
When Ashley first moved in with Clint, Jaimie took drastic measures to get her back. She filed a false police report with the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Department, claiming Clint had kidnapped Ashley. When Richland County deputies arrived at their home, Ashley told them herself that she was there willingly and even presented a no-contact order she had filed against her husband. One deputy then informed Clint and Ashley that Jaimie was waiting just down the street, with Ashley’s estranged husband, hoping to retrieve her.
Despite all of Jaimie’s attempts, Ashley always returned to Clint, her soulmate.
A Love That Felt Like Fate
Clint described their bond as something out of a romance movie. “We could feel each other even when we weren’t together,” Ashley once said. Clint agreed, recalling, “When I told her that I was in love with her, I was shaking like a teenager. And then she said she felt the same.”
Their connection was like nothing the other had felt before.
But in one heartbreaking episode, Ashley told Clint she was going to Cheraw with her mother to meet an attorney. But afterwards, she was left with Chris Webb, a known drug dealer and pedophile, by her mother. When she returned 2 weeks later, she admitted she had slept with Webb, then immediately told Clint she was pregnant with Clint’s child.
Clint was devastated that Ashley betrayed their relationship, but he could not give up on their feelings for each other. “We had always talked about having a family,” he said. “Part of me thought this could be the thing that brought everything full circle for us.”
But just days later, Ashley, after returning to her mother, claimed she had a miscarriage. Ashley claimed a miscarriage 2 more times with Clint.
Ashley, according to Clint, began a game of going back and forth between her mother and him. When Clint would bring up the issues of her uncontrolled drinking and the pills her mother would give her, Ashley would take off to her mother’s, who would, in turn, attempt to hook Ashley up with other men to separate Ashley and Clint.
Here is a voicemail we were given that Ashley had left for Clint:
In the following video clip, you hear Ashley state how she feels about her and Clint’s relationship during a video call they shared (this video was edited due to its full content being of an adult nature):
During the video call, Ashley also comments that she and Clint should have met sooner, and that time would have been while they were both in Germany. We added this video because of the many falsehoods Ashley states about her and Clint’s relationship, and to individuals to submit to her mother’s guidance. And we wanted to show how their relationship was of a romantic nature. Clint states that there were many of this sort of video calls between him and Ashley while she stayed at her mother’s, some lasting all day and night.
Mental Health Collapse
Things unraveled quickly. After a series of erratic behaviors and sleeping with other men, Ashley was arrested in Kershaw County, South Carolina. During processing, she told authorities Clint was her boyfriend and that he would come to get her, as the Judge did not feel comfortable releasing her without someone taking responsibility for her.
Still holding on to hope, Clint went to the Kershaw County Detention Center. What he saw shook him: Ashley was wearing only a bathrobe, talking in loops. She said she had been “dead for six months” and had “fallen out of the sky,” but reassured him, “It’s okay—I’m back now.”
Clint had brought her to a hospital in Dillon, trying to get her psychiatric care due to her constant looping phrase. Instead, she was rearrested. She was picked up by her Aunt and taken to Baptist Hospital, and finally transferred to Richland Springs Mental Hospital. There, she was diagnosed with substance- and alcohol-induced psychosis and an undefined personality disorder.
Doctors recommended she be involuntarily committed, but due to a lack of available placement, Ashley was released pending admission into a long-term facility.
And once again, she returned to her mother.
The Return to Chaos
In December 2023, Ashley began calling Clint again, saying she loved him and wanted to come home. But Clint soon discovered she was sleeping with others at the time. Her pattern continued.
Clint states that this is her comfort zone of sorts; it’s what she was raised to believe was love and caring. She knows the difference, but can not help herself when things get to a certain point.
While living with her mother, Ashley told people Clint stalked her, claimed he took her files and photos, and rewrote their entire history. She fails to mention certain facts, like they’d lived together for six years, that she had twice claimed to be pregnant with his child, and told everyone that her bond with Clint was real.
Perhaps most telling: while with Clint, Ashley actively fought for custody of her two children. While with her mother, that fight ceased completely.
Clint says Ashley told him something that has stayed with him ever since:
“If someone doesn’t want to sleep with me, I don’t think they care about me.”
Ashley has said in her own words that this belief—equating sex with love and abuse with caring—was instilled in her by her mother. But with Clint, she knew he loved her no matter what, and that she fought her upbringing because she knew the difference. Ashley stated she always felt safe in Clint’s arms.
The Question We Can’t Answer
Today, Clint still speaks of her with love. You can see it in his face—the hope, the pain, the weight of watching someone you love unravel.
“Ashley and I met at a time when both our lives were spiraling out of control,” Clint said. “Somehow we balanced each other out. Everyone around us saw it before we did—even our children.”
But how much can love really save someone who’s drowning?
Ashley’s story is not black and white. It’s the blurred, bleeding middle ground between victim and perpetrator. Between trauma and responsibility. Between being broken and breaking others.
So we leave you with this:
Is Ashley still a victim of abuse? Or has she become the manipulator?
Are her choices her own—or are they the residue of a life raised in chaos?
Ashley once said she fell from the sky.
Maybe the truth is simpler—and sadder:
She was never taught how to land.
Is her fear of her relationship with Clint rooted in the upbringing she has had? She has stated to many individuals how she loves him and how they are one, but then why lie about their relationship now?
Clint has stated he will never give up believing in the woman he fell in love with. He has begun writing a book chronicling their relationship and the events in their lives.