30-year-old man who was evicted by parents gives awkward interview

With the rising cost of home ownership, and rental rates not faring any better, coupled with all of those insane student loans we took on when we were hoodwinked into attending college, more and more millennials are finding it difficult to move out of their parents' houses.

For me, it was hugely a cultural thing, the "old-world" mentality of everyone living super close to each other or all piling together in one big house made getting out of my folks' home and living on my own pretty difficult. I'm embarrassed that it wasn't until my mid-twenties or so that I finally moved out.

But, to my credit, I pulled my own weight. I helped out with money, wasn't a burden on anyone, and when I finally decided to grow up, take on a bunch of part-time jobs to save enough money to move out - I can't believe I didn't bust my hump to do so sooner.

Although the lightbulb came on rather late for me, there are some people who pull a total Matthew McConaughey and have a failure to launch.

Like 30-year-old Michael Rotondo of Syracuse, New York.

His parents were so sick and tired of his mooching behavior, his alleged inability to do chores, pay rent, or contribute any value to the family unit aside from just being their son that they sued him to evict him from their home. 

Call it extreme, or extremely good parenting, but they actually went through with it and took him to court. 

The judge presiding over the case heard Rotondo's arguments and even had a few positive things to say about them, but ultimately, it wasn't enough to stop him from being ordered to leave his family's home. 

Despite taking an $1,100 gift from his parents to help get him started to live somewhere else, Rotondo returned back home telling his parents that it "wasn't enough" to move out. So Rotondo went back home, extending his post-firing home return to 8 years before his folks decided that they had had enough. 

Michael's story quickly went viral online, gaining the attention of several news outlets. So CNN decided to call him in for an interview that was, uh, fascinating, to say the least.    

"Interview" is a pretty loose term: Brooke Baldwin tried to conduct a semblance of a q&a but what ensued was a confirmation that, without a shadow of a doubt, Michael Rotondo just need to grow the heck up. 

Baldwin began the interview by stating that Michael is 30 and asking him flat out if he wants to find his own place. To which he summarily replied with "no." 

"No," Rotondo said.

"Why not?" asked Baldwin.

Then, Rotondo pivots in a matter of seconds saying about his parent's home:

"I don't want to live there anymore. It's very tense; it's very awkward. We have to, you know, we have to share space, which may be the case where I would find myself afterwards, but I'd prefer to get out," he said.

Baldwin pursued her questioning, asking Rotondo what stopped him and his parents from coming to an arrangement without having to go to court. Rotondo offered up a similarly contradictory, non-response. Badlwin's face in the image still pretty much says it all.  

"I would consider much of what they were doing to try to get me out as attacks, and what I was just, you know, trying to preserve — well, trying to do what's best for me, which is trying to be a little more reasonable. I'll leave — I don't like living here, but I need reasonable time," apparently eight years isn't enough time.  

Baldwin then flat out asked Rotondo why he doesn't move out of his parents' house tomorrow. 

"I don't have the means to do that tomorrow," said Rotondo.

"Do you have a job?" Baldwin asked.

"No."

"Are you trying to get a job?"

Rotondo then stumbles through a response where he says he has "plans" to "provide for himself" but doesn't think that's going to happen in the near future and he shouldn't be expected to do that in the near future, either.

Then he drank some water, in the middle of the interview, to which Baldwin roasted him for: "Please take a sip of your water." 

Baldwin then followed up by asking Rotondo if he'd ever want to reconcile with his parents, to which he replied with, "No. No, I don't." 

As it turns out, Rotondo has a son and he recently lost visitation rights with his child. He brought up the fact with Brooke Baldwin, something she said she was aware of and that her "heart goes out" to him. 

When she asked him about him being the symbol of the "lazy millennial," Rotondo provided what has to be one of the most cringeworthy parts of the interview where his self-delusion reached its peak.

He said that he didn't consider himself a millennial because "he's a very conservative person."

"The millennials that they're speaking to are very liberal in their ideology," Rotondo replied.

"But you're 30, so technically I think you are part of the millennial generation. I don't think there's a delineation between—" Baldwin replied.

"You're right. But when people speak to the millennials and the... their general nature as a millennial, they speak to more liberal leanings."

So, we're to gather that his point is that millennials are liberal who have the mindset of people who live in their parents homes and need to be evicted to finally move out and fend for themselves, but don't actually do it. And he's just someone who actually expects handouts from his parents and takes them, but doesn't embody that mindset, you know, because he's a conservative. Right. 

He ended his interview by saying that he was, indeed, a millennial. And Baldwin's response to the entire, bizarre endeavor?

"So that was one of the more surreal interviews we've taken part of here in the last little while." She said, and the awkward interview was finally done. 

I feel bad for this dude's parents, he didn't do any favors with himself by appearing on-air. 

This article was originally published on December 16, 2019. It has since been updated.