One Chicago’s 5 worst parents

4. Benjamin “Benny” Severide

One of the first parents we ever met in the One Chicago franchise was Kelly Severide’s (Taylor Kinney) father, Benjamin “Benny” Severide (recurring guest star Treat Williams). Back in Chicago Fire season 1, when Kelly was debating between staying in Chicago or moving to Madrid with Renee Royce, he turned to his father for advice. Based on that interaction, we thought that Benny might be better than expected.

However, just a few episodes later, Benny revealed his true colours when he clashed with Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) in the episode “Better To Lie.” Both Benny and Chief Boden had served with Peter Mills’ (Charlie Barnett) father, who’d died on the job. Chief Boden referred to his deceased colleague as a hero, but Benny didn’t see it that way and wanted to tell Mills the truth about his father’s death. He was willing to ruin the relationship between a deceased colleague and his son, not really thinking about whether or not that would be best for Mills. He wasn’t just a pain to his own son, but to someone else’s, too.

Benny has also continued to be a thorn in Kelly’s side consistently. We found out in Chicago Fire season 2 that Benny had fathered a child with someone other than Severide’s mom. Kelly was introduced to his half-sister Katie Nolan (guest star Brittany Curran) after having no idea she existed before that point—in fact, he was convinced she was sleeping with Benny!

Not only did Benny fail to tell Kelly about his half-sister, not only has he been portrayed as an utter womanizer who was last seen getting his ex-wife back into bed, but this is also the guy who once sided with Gail McLeod (Michelle Forbes) to possibly take down Boden. Benny has not only hurt his son, but he’s also crossed others at Firehouse 51. Still, his problems have started to look minor compared to other parents on this list.