Eminem's brother Nate issues blunt five-word response to their mother’s death
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@nathankanemathers/CRAIG SJODIN via Getty Images
After years of estrangement, Nathan 'Nate' Kane Mathers - the younger half-brother of rapper Eminem - has issued a five-word statement following the death of their mother Debbie Nelson.
Debbie passed away this week aged 69 following a diagnosis of advanced lung cancer, reps for Eminem confirmed.
Both Eminem - real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III - 52, and his younger half-brother have endured turbulent relationships with their mother.
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The rapper, whose father Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. abandoned the family when he was a year-and-a-half-old, was born into poverty.
In the years that followed, as he and his mother attempted to survive by both taking on several different jobs in order to pay the bills, Debbie struck up a relationship with a man named Fred Samara Jr..
When Eminem was 14, she welcomed his younger half-brother, Nathan - known as 'Nate' to his loved ones - after which Samara Jr. also left the picture.
Aged just eight, however, Nate was placed into the foster care system after Debbie claimed she couldn't care for her son. Eight years later, when he was 16, his older brother officially adopted him.
The brothers kept themselves distanced from their mother, with Eminem releasing several tracks throughout his career alluding to their fragmented relationship.
38-year-old Nate has since penned a five-word statement on his Instagram Story last night (3 December), seemingly in response to the news of his mother's passing hitting the headlines.
Sharing a black screen with a white written message, he said: "Hatred and mixed emotions today."
Grammy-winning musician Eminem is yet to comment publicly on his mother's passing.
In his 2002 track 'Cleanin' Out My Closet', he accused his mother neglecting and mistreating him throughout a huge proportion of his childhood.
Six years later, Debbie opted to speak to press about her relationships with her sons, claiming she's 'not ever gonna give up on' them.
"I won’t give up on anybody," she told Village Voice in 2008. "There’s hope for everybody. It’s a matter of just basically swallowing your pride. It’s like a cashed check.
"It’s over, it’s done. You need to move on."
In 2013, Eminem's song 'Headlights' seemed to allude to the rapper's hope of making amends with his mother, with the lyrics saying: "I went in headfirst, never thinking about who what I said hurt / My mom probably got it the worst."
In the track, he went on to confess he was 'mad I didn’t get the chance to thank you for being my mom and my dad'.