During an appearance on the Mama, I Made It podcast, former Destiny’s Child member, Kelly Rowland, spoke extensively about her previously estranged father and explained why she decided to reconcile with him after 30 years.
Per Hot 97, Rowland, 44, explained that she took the decision after she pondered on the answer she was going to give to her children if they asked about their grandfather Christopher Lovett.
“What was I going to tell him?” Rowland said. “I could give him everything about his grandmother. But what am I going to tell him about my father?”
Rowland reconnected with Lovett in 2018, and she stated that she knew that was the time to bridge the gap.
“And I put it off for so long. I was like, ‘I just don’t want to open this box. I don’t know what’s going to be behind here. This is enough trauma. Let me just figure it all out now,” the Grammy-winner said. “But when I was able to meet him and talk to him and look him in his eye, I realized why I sang.”
Rowland also revealed that she got to know her paternal grandmother provided backing vocals for deceased jazz legends Lena Horne and Count Basie, per Hot 97. The Motivation singer stated that it subsequently dawned on her that she had to “step up” because she was actually experiencing her grandmother’s “dream.”
“Even though I never met her, it’s for her, it’s for him, it’s for my kids. Like, it’s just it was bigger than me,” Rowland explained. “Meeting my father was bigger than me. It was about my kids and about the unknown in which I was nosy. I wanted to know.”
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Rowland described her current relationship with her father as “awesome.” She also said he’s looking forward to hanging out with her and her family during Christmas.
This isn’t the first time Rowland has opened up about reconnecting with her father. In a lengthy Instagram post in June 2020, the 44-year-old said that meeting her father for the first time after 30 years was “one of the most pivotal moments in my life!”
“After 30years of not seeing him, not speaking to him…what would THAT mean, for me, my family, my psyche? Well, this day in Oct. of 2018, I would find out. I finally found him, set up the meeting, and at this time I was filming ‘American Soul’, when I tell you I was petrified, I was walking to meet him, and my feet suddenly felt like they weighed A TON, needles to say I was overcome with anxiety, and I had a full on anxiety attack, in that moment I felt like the abandoned 8yr old,” Rowland wrote.
She added: “My team calmed me down. And as I turn the corner, in my head I was cursing this man, ‘Why didn’t you come find me?’ ‘Did you love me?’ ‘Am I worthy?’ And when I looked at him, and he looked at me, NOTHING CAME TO MY LIPS, not one word. I felt the Holy Spirit say to me,listen. I listened to him, I was nervous to trust him, nervous to forgive him, nervous to love him nervous about it all.”
Rowland continued: “And the truth is, I already loved him. I spoke to my protective husband and those closest to me and they encourage me to forgive and jump! And since this time, I have forgiven, and we have spoken everyday since! I have come to know SO much about myself, my family history, and even where my love of music & voice have come from! I Love you Daddy, and love being your little girl…even at 39! Lol P.S. we are making up for lost time, and when I tell you, him telling me how smart and beautiful I am….will never get old! #HAPPYFATHERSDAY #reunited”
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