Jennifer Hudson has always had a big fan base — but it turns out her home base is pretty stacked, too.
The eponymous talk show host, 42, opened up about her family on a recent episode of the aptly titled Your Mama’s Kitchen: Conversations From the Heart of the Home podcast, revealing to host Michele Norris that her dad fathered 27 children — and she’s the youngest of them all.
Recalling the story of how Hudson discovered she had so many brothers and sisters, Norris asked: “You went with your siblings and went and found [your father] at some point and found that you had a lot more siblings?”
“Yes, a lot of us,” the American Idol alum responded.
“Apparently he had 27 children,” she shared, later adding: “That’s what we were always told. We’ve found 11 girls and 17 boys … something like that.”
When she went searching for her other siblings as a teen, Hudson recalled that her “dream” at the time was “to have all of us at this grand Thanksgiving or Christmas table, and we all sit and eat together.”
Jennifer Hudson attends the 35th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at New York Hilton Midtown on May 11, 2024 in New York City. One month later, the singer and talk show host revealed her dad fathered 27 kids.
Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
While she noted she hasn’t met all of her siblings yet, the family reunions began after the revelation — a dream that eventually came true for the EGOT winner. “When my grandma on [my dad’s] side passed, my siblings over there were like, ‘Y’all got a sister that can really sing, you should meet her,'” she told Norris. “And eventually we all came together.”
Devastatingly, Hudson — who shares 14-year-old son David with ex David Otunga — has also dealt with immense tragedy in her family life.
After growing up with brother Jason and sister Julia — whom her mother shared with her father, Samuel Simpson — Julia’s husband, William Balfour, committed a triple homicide in 2008: murdering Hudson’s mom, Darnell Donerson, her brother, Jason, and Julia’s son, Julian, who was 7 years old.
One year later, in 2008, Hudson welcomed her son David — who became her saving grace amidst the horrors inflicted upon her family.
“I went from being an aunt, having a mom, and being a child to not having a mom, becoming a mom, and raising my own child,” she later told Glamour magazine in 2012. “I tell David all the time, ‘You saved my life.'”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
