Fans of reality television are bound to get tearful as they watch a new episode of Kendra on Top this week. Kendra on Top stars celebrity Playmate Kendra Wilkinson, a beautiful blonde who is best remembered for her time spent as the one-time romantic interest of the founder of Playboy Enterprises, Hugh Hefner. The latest episode of her reality TV show finds Ms. Wilkinson in Costa Rica, reuniting with her father after 20 years of estrangement.

Ms. Wilkinson is no stranger to Costa Rica. A few months ago, the production crew of Kendra on Top filmed the lovely model and her family as they enjoyed a vacation in Playa Avellanas, province of Guanacaste. It is believed that Ms. Wilkinson knew at the time that she could find her missing father while in Costa Rica; alas, she had other issues to deal with at the time. Ms. Wilkinson may have seemed joyful with her husband and children in Cost Rica, but the third season of her reality show proved otherwise. According to US Magazine:

The trip [to Costa Rica] followed the news that [Hank Baskett, a 31-year old professional football player] cheated on his wife with transgender model Ava Sabrina London. In an early clip from the upcoming third season of her WE tv program, which premieres Oct. 3, Wilkinson is seen lamenting, “Our marriage is down the drain. I flushed my wedding rings down the toilet.”

Ms. Wilkinson’s father had contemplated reuniting with his daughter when she visited Costa Rica, but he did not wish to do so as part of the reality TV show. When he learned, however, that his daughter was devastated by the sordid news about her unfaithful husband, he changed his mind and did not care whether cameras were present when his daughter reached out to him at a desperate time.

Ms. Wilkinson’s father is just one of many expats who land in Costa Rica and forego their parental responsibilities elsewhere. Another celebrity father who abandoned his family and moved to Costa Rica is Pat Curren. According to the Encyclopedia of Surfing:

Curren had a midday wedding in Hawaii, in 1961, and surfed Waimea that afternoon. He and his wife, Jeanine, moved to California the following year, where Curren worked mainly as a diver and board-builder. Tom Curren, the couple’s first son, was born in 1964; second son Joe was born in 1974. Pat left the family in 1981 and moved to Costa Rica; he and Jeanine were soon divorced. Curren moved to the southern tip of Baja in 1988, near San Jose del Cabo. Pat and Tom surfed together in Costa Rica in 1985, while Joe joined his father and older brother for a surf trip to Ireland and France in 2000, but Curren family members have for the most part gone their own ways.

Writing for Surfing Magazine, Taylor Paul recently mentioned Pat Curren among a list of other men who left their families and later saw their sons and daughters become the best professional surfers on the planet.

Tom Curren and Kendra Wilkinson are just two celebrity examples of people who grow up knowing that their fathers, for some reason, left them and then ran away to Costa Rica. At least the legendary surfer and the former Playmate were fortunate enough to realize their childhood and adolescence dreams of reuniting with their fathers in Costa Rica. It is not far-fetched to think that most expat fathers who escape their responsibilities in the United States by relocating here in secrecy never see their children again.

What is it about Costa Rica that entices men to ditch their families abroad? Unfortunately, many of our country’s qualities that attract thousands of tourists month after month may also motivate irresponsible fathers to leave their families. Both Curren and Wilkinson’s fathers are watermen: The former is a surfer and board shaper; the latter a boater. A cursory review of the literature about Costa Rica as a prime surfing, fishing and boating destination reveals a trend of exalting our coastal communities as places where anonymity and a laid-back lifestyle are complemented by amazing nature and the most favorable oceanic conditions. Such qualities may be attractive to men looking to bury their guilt and forget about the terrible damage they caused by abandoning their families.