It’s been years since the backlash, but ‘I Remember’ belter Keyshia Cole certainly hasn’t forgotten when fans and detractors alike slammed her for statements they perceived as denouncement of her ‘Blackness.’
Back in 2012, the Grammy nominee revealed she was Biracial in response to a question regarding why “Black Girls Rock.” When the negative commentary about her revelation heated up, Cole responded:
“#BlackGirlsRock first off I feel ALLGIRLSROCK!! And by the way, I don’t not know what I’m mixed with, nor have I tried to find out,” she took to Twitter to say. “I was raised in Oakland. My mother is a black woman HOWEVER I do not know my father..”
Fast forward to 2019, the R&B diva took to her Fox Soul talk show, ‘One on One with Keyshia Cole,’ to sit down with her mother (Frankie Lons) for an in-depth interview to address her racial makeup, details about her father, and more. The conversation took an emotional turn when Lons revealed shocking details about her relationship with Cole’s dad.
See how it unfolded inside:
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After the 2012 backlash from her statement of being biracial, Cole went on the hunt herself to find (and announce in 2016) that her father was high-profile boxing trainer Virgil Hunter – an African American (seen below).
Frankie, as seen in the interview above, clarifies Hunter is not Keyshia’s father. Instead, Lons says Cole’s dad is an Italian American man who is now deceased. Claiming to have met him when she was a prostitute, Frankie reveals the man was significantly older than her.