Jennifer Hudson opens up about discovering her dad fathered 27 kids
Jennifer Hudson has opened up about her family life, revealing that she believes her father gave her 26 siblings.
The 42-year-old 'Spotlight' singer and Academy award-winning actor exposed the family secret on the recent episode of Your Mama's Kitchen: Conversations from the Heart of the Home.
In the candid interview, the Dream Girls star told host Michele Norris that when she discovered the revelation at 16, she began to delve deep into her father's life.
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When Norris asked her about her father's personality, she revealed that her late father, Samuel Simpson, had created a pretty expansive family tree.
"Apparently he had 27 children," she shared. "It was my dream to have all of us at this grand Thanksgiving or Christmas table, and we all sit and eat together — that was my goal at 16."
The EGOT winner went on to explain that she has never got round to meeting all of her brothers and sisters, with her and her siblings that she grew up with only meeting six or seven of the others.
Hudson continued: "That’s what we were always told, we found quite a few of us – 11 girls and 17 boys, I think. Something like that.
"We met maybe six others, six or seven others. I’m the youngest of all of them."
The singer stated that for her siblings, it was her father's side that united them and co-ordinated a meeting for a few of them to meet."
She added: "When my grandma on his side passed, my siblings over there were like, 'Y’all got a sister that can really sing, you should meet her, and eventually we all came together'."
The Hudson family faced tragedy in 2008, when Jennifer's mother, nephew and brother were murdered by her sister's husband William Balfour.
Hudson opened up about her heartbreak on an episode of Oprah's Next Chapter back in 2012.
When Oprah asked if she forgave her family's killer, Hudson shared: "Yes, because I feel like for the most part it's not his fault.
"It's how he was brought up. We tried to offer love, but you were so far gone, that you couldn't even see that.
"A lot of things came out, that we didn't even know about, from his upbringing, which is like he never had a chance.
"Had you had the love my mother gave us, or the background that some have, then you would've stood a chance."
Emma Butterworth