The Narcissistic Millionaire: Camille Kanaan’s Reign of Control and Violence

“Camille was always very violent. I remember once, during a piano lesson, he beat my mother so badly that he almost killed her. That scene will haunt me forever.”

What causes a daughter to refuse to call her father ‘dad,’ opting instead to refer to him by his name as if he were a stranger? What transforms a father from a supposed source of safety and support into one of fear and anxiety?

Katie Kanaan, a courageous 14-year-old, has decided to stand up against her father’s violence and manipulation directed at her, her sister, and their mother. Each time a woman seeks divorce to escape a life filled with abuse and fear, she and her children often become targets for the narcissist’s rage and control.

“He doesn’t deserve to be called my father,” Katie declares in a video shared on her Instagram account, emphasizing her decision to speak out because “I couldn’t take it anymore.”

In our investigation of Camille Kanaan, we uncovered the painful memories he has etched into his daughter’s life, memories of violence that she says will “accompany her forever.” Through her brave act of sharing her experiences in the virtual realm, Katie hopes her message resonates with society and the authorities that, too often, align with the abuser at the expense of women and children.

About Camille Kanaan’s abuses: physical and mental torture

Katie, the daughter of Lebanese businessman Camille Kanaan, describes her father’s retaliation against his ex-wife, Carol Rizk, and the profound impact on her and her sister, Chloe. “I lived in Dubai at Arabian Ranches until I was eight,” she recalls. “My life was comfortable, except for the recurring issue of violence at home.” Katie emphasizes how her father’s violent demeanor destabilized their family and damaged her psyche.

In 2018, when her mother sought divorce and they relocated to Lebanon, Katie’s life unraveled further. Suddenly, her reality revolved around police stations and courtroom battles. Her father’s need for control turned her childhood into a nightmare, as she and her sister became pawns in a game of parental revenge.

For years, the sisters were forced to report to the police station twice a week to be handed over to their father, enduring stressful weekends filled with fear and anxiety. “At his house, we faced all kinds of abuse,” Katie recounts. “We were yelled at, threatened, beaten, and even locked in the bathroom. Fridays were the worst, as I would feel anxious and stressed thinking about the weekend.”

But the abuse didn’t end there. Katie described enduring verbal assaults as her father demeaned their mother in front of his friends and family. “He would call my mother terrible names, and even his mother once told my sister she was ugly like my mother,” she recalls painfully.

The cycle of violence that Katie endured has been documented by the Metn District Court of Urgent Matters, which issued a ruling on February 10, 2023, mandating Camille Kanaan to refrain from any form of physical, moral, or material harm to his daughters. Furthermore, he was ordered to attend rehabilitation sessions aimed at improving his behavior.

This decision followed a preliminary ruling by the Baabda Court of Appeals on April 28, 2021, where Camille was convicted of threatening behavior under Article 578 of the Penal Code, responding to a complaint from Carol regarding death threats and defamation.

In 2021, Carol also sought protection from Judge Joelle Abi Haidar, but unfortunately received no response, highlighting a concerning neglect within the judicial system towards the plight of mothers and their children.

Favoritism, pressure, and questionable tactics

Despite the court’s decisions against him, Camille Kanaan remained relentless in pursuing actions that harmed his daughters directly. He exerted financial pressure and employed other manipulative tactics to blackmail them.

One prominent method of this retaliatory pressure was the abrupt transfer of the two girls from their school, executed without their input or consideration of the psychological and emotional ramifications of such an action.

Interestingly, amid these abuses, the father managed to overturn the protection order issued by the Court of Urgent Matters, despite evidence proving the harm inflicted upon the girls. This disregard for the safety and well-being of both the daughters and their mother raises questions about potential favoritism or, at minimum, undue pressure from Judge Ralph Karkabi.

Moreover, sources indicate that a gendarmerie patrol was dispatched to remove the daughters from their school, citing that the mother had failed to hand them over. The patrol also attempted to arrest the mother following a search and investigation order, despite the father having already collected the girls from school.

Further investigation revealed that the transfer of the daughters occurred through a decision by the Spiritual Court, made in a troublingly ‘dishonest’ manner. A subsequent ruling from the Court of Appeals to restore the girls to their original school highlighted that the father had fraudulently registered his daughters in the new school for the 2020-2021 academic year. He allegedly contacted a former judge, who no longer served at the Spiritual Court, to persuade the school administration under the pretense of representing the court in order to confirm the decision to transfer the girls.

The ruling emphasized that this behavior was inappropriate and indicative of the father’s intent to hasten the transfer process. Consequently, the girls’ academic performance suffered, resulting in disappointing outcomes, alongside the psychological and emotional distress caused by the abrupt change in schools and the chaotic shift from one educational approach to another.

Psychiatry: another tool of abuse in Camille Kanaan’s hands

With calculated narcissistic cunning, Camille Kanaan continued to manipulate his daughters’ emotional well-being under the guise of reconciliation. He petitioned the Spiritual Court to appoint a psychologist, claiming he sought to improve his relationship with his daughters. This plea came from the same man whose daughter exposed a history of physical abuse, emotional deprivation, and relentless efforts to humiliate and control them.

The court appointed therapist and psychological counselor Rodna Najm, a figure whose past psychiatric report had favored Kanaan and cast aspersions on the mother, Carol Rizk. Despite Najm’s apparent bias and the daughters’ discomfort with her methods, the Court of Urgent Matters ordered Katie and Chloe to continue therapy with her. The decision, enforced under the threat of a coercive fine of 25 million Lebanese pounds per day for noncompliance, ignored the court’s lack of jurisdiction in appointing psychologists, a responsibility that lies solely with the Spiritual Court.

Carol Rizk objected to the appointment, citing the court’s overreach and her daughters’ unease with Najm. She did not oppose psychotherapy itself but instead requested a neutral psychologist better suited to her daughters’ needs. Yet her objections were dismissed, forcing the continuation of therapy under conditions that seemed more punitive than therapeutic.

Katie, in the description of a video posted two days ago, described her harrowing experience: “In the summer, we were forced to see a therapist who was supposed to work on our relationship with him. This woman met with us once and attacked me using the same words as Camille. She secretly recorded me and lied about it. It became clear that her role was to create reports for Camille to use with his lawyer. She never had our best interests at heart, neither did he.”

“Father with Conditions”: Financial Blackmail and Manipulation

“He stole my childhood and my happiness, and he kept threatening me with my studies even though I am an excellent and outstanding student,” laments Katie. “The person who was supposed to love and protect me more than anyone else was the one who hurt me the most.” Katie, a bright student with dreams of attending medical school, now lives under the constant shadow of anxiety brought on by her father’s financial blackmail and the manipulation of alimony, common consequences of divorce decrees following violent and abusive relationships.

In the video she posted, Katie shared details of her schooling in Dubai: “I went to Repton, and then I moved to DAA.” A simple search of the tuition fees for both prestigious schools reveals that they range between $25,000 and $30,000 per year. The house she once lived in with her father was listed on a real estate website as being worth nearly $4 million. Yet today, her father punishes her and her sister with alimony payments totaling just $1,000 a month for both of them combined.

Sharika Wa Laken’s investigation into the case revealed that this alimony amount was reached after nearly a year of deliberate manipulation on Kanaan’s part. During the early days of Lebanon’s economic crisis, he was paying alimony of 5 million Lebanese pounds, a sum equivalent to only $50 at the time, through bank cheques issued to his ex-wife.

Like many fathers who exploit their compulsory guardianship over their children, Camille Kanaan turned to another familiar tactic of control: imposing a “travel ban.” For more than seven years, Kanaan has used this restriction as part of a series of narcissistic punishments, targeting his daughters whenever they defied him.

“When we wanted to participate in a swimming competition in Dubai with the school, we asked him if we could go, and he immediately said yes,” Katie recounted. While he signed all the necessary papers, she revealed how he manipulated and blackmailed her and her sister for two months, forcing them to behave “like his slaves” to avoid disappointing him. “He gave us the illusion that he had arranged all the travel arrangements, but in the end, he didn’t lift the travel ban,” she explained, depriving them of the chance to participate in the competition. This blatant manipulation disregarded not only their psychological well-being but also their educational aspirations and sporting ambitions.

Documents seen by Sharika Wa Laken revealed that, while Kanaan freely traveled in and out of Lebanon an average of eight times within just seven months, he consistently denied his daughters even a single opportunity to travel, whether for education or sports. This stark disparity exemplifies patriarchal arrogance, where authoritarian control takes precedence over any educational or humanitarian values.

Kanaan’s harassment didn’t stop at travel restrictions. He coupled his financial blackmail with a calculated legal campaign to reduce his daughters’ expenses, while simultaneously spending extravagantly on himself. The accompanying legal battles, with their substantial fees, added to the pressure on his ex-wife and daughters. In a glaring display of opulence, Kanaan celebrated his wedding on December 21, 2024, at the Sursock Palace, one of Lebanon’s most luxurious venues. Hosting hundreds of guests at such a high-profile location, a venue known to cost a fortune, offered a stark contrast to his claims of financial hardship in court.

Katie remembered this with bitterness: “On December 21, 2024, he had a lavish wedding at the Sursock Palace, inviting hundreds of people, even though a month earlier, he claimed in court that he didn’t have enough money to pay for my schooling or child support.” She added, “He always uses money to humiliate and insult me. I have to beg him for basic needs. When it comes to us, his daughters, he suddenly becomes poor.”

Despite owning several properties in Dubai, Greece, and Lebanon, along with a yacht and luxury cars, Kanaan reserves his generosity for public displays and social gatherings. “In front of strangers, he seems like the most generous and kindest person, but behind closed doors, he’s scary,” Katie revealed. “While he takes his family and friends on expensive trips and showers them with extravagant gifts if we ask him for anything, he suddenly has no money.”

As uncovered by the investigative team at Sharika Wa Laken, Camille Kanaan, the millionaire, has been manipulating his financial disclosures to deprive his daughters of fair child support. A job offer submitted by Alayan Investments – Greece branch, effective February 1, 2018, states that Kanaan’s financial returns from the contract amount to approximately $1 million annually. Yet, in the context of the financial penalties he imposes on his daughters, who chose to live with their mother, Kanaan presented an employment contract to the court claiming that he earns only $22,000 per year from the same company. How can such a dramatic drop of more than 90% in income be explained, except as a deliberate act of fraud and forgery? How can this “businessman” justify enjoying an income of nearly $1 million annually while his daughters are forced to survive on less than $12,000 per year, or no more than $1,000 per month for both of them?

Katie also highlighted her father’s manipulative tactics, saying he often tries to present a perfect façade of his relationship with his children. “On one occasion, Camille wanted to take a photo with the family to show how perfect we are, but when we didn’t want to smile for the picture, he hit us,” Katie recounted. She emphasized that she and her sister constantly walked on eggshells to avoid angering him, as “he wanted to be a father on his own terms, but he never provided us with the security and stability we needed.”