Despite having spent more than half her life in the spotlight as part of the top-selling group Destiny’s Child and as a solo, GRAMMY-winning artist, there is still so much Kelly Rowland fans (affectionately called #RowlandStones) don’t know about the diva.
Proof of that came Tuesday (March 15) when Rowland took to ‘Today’ as a guest host to discuss the journey to forgiving her father, Christopher Lovett, who abandoned her as a child.
Hear the heart-tugging tale inside:
*Video may not stream in every country*
Chatting with resident host Hoda Kotb, the ‘Motivation’ singer-actress recounted how she reconnected with Lovett after the birth of her first son, Titan.
“I had to give my dad grace. As parents, we have to give our parents grace. It’s never too late. Forgiveness is always right there,” she said through tears.
Raised by a single mother, Kelly says she was well cared for but Lovett’s 30-year absence left a void in her life that she didn’t know she needed filled.
“It was necessary to the little girl in me that needed to hear that,” she told Kotb about her 2018 reunion with her dad. “It was necessary to hear it from a man. It was necessary to hear it from my father and when I thought about all the tumultuous relationships and trying to figure out men, like, that is the base and the foundation of it psychologically. So when I’m talking to therapists and I’m asking them about this, it all runs back to the abandonment issue.”
The reconnection helped heal her ‘inner child,’ the R&B diva said, which served as many inspirations for her latest children’s book, ‘Always with You, Always with Me.’
Ahead of its April 26 release, Kelly dished about the process of writing it and even got a surprise message from her sons, Noah and Titan, about it.
Click here to read more about Rowland’s latest book.