Celebrities Raised By Single Moms

Publish date: 2024-07-07

Being raised by a single mother is an experience that significantly impacts a child’s character and perspective on the world, and many celebrities have opened up about the profound influence their single moms have had on their lives.

For stars like Alicia Keys, Ryan Gosling, and Kelly Clarkson, being raised by single mothers taught them strength, resilience, and unconditional love. In 2015, the “No One” singer gave a touching speech at the Harlem School of the Arts 50th-anniversary gala, during which she recognized just how much she appreciates her mom Terria.

“I want to thank her for being my mother, my father, my best friend, and my biggest fan — even when nobody knew a thing about me,” Keys said. She added, “I want to thank you for being my example of dedication, of loyalty, of determination, of dreams, of compassion, of kindness, reciprocity and womanhood.”

Read one single mom's relatable experience with balancing dating and motherhood. https://t.co/XToDF47M1m

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For other celebrities like Mariah Carey, Eminem, and Justin Bieber, their relationships with their single mothers are much more complicated. Carey opened up about her strained relationship with her mother in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, in which she addressed the “significant neglect” she faced at the hands of her mom.

“I loved her deeply, and, like most kids, I wanted her to be a safe place for me,” the “We Belong Together” singer wrote. “But ours is a story of betrayal and beauty. Of love and abandonment. Of sacrifice and survival. I’ve emancipated myself from bondage several times, but there is a cloud of sadness that I suspect will always hang over me, not simply because of my mother but because of our complicated journey together.”

Familial relationships are complex more often than not, and these celebrity stories address the highs and lows of what it’s like to be raised by a single mother.

Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys made her admiration for her mom, Terria Joseph, abundantly clear during the speech she gave at the Harlem School of the Arts 50th-anniversary gala in October 2015. The musician began, “Tonight, this honor here is really all about my mother. I can only say… and she’s standing behind me so I can’t even see her… I can only say thank you, and it’ll never, ever be enough.”
Keys emotionally continued, “I want to thank her for all the Sundays she played Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington on vinyl. I want to thank her for being my mother, my father, my best friend, and my biggest fan — even when nobody knew a thing about me. I want to thank you for being my example of dedication, of loyalty, of determination, of dreams, of compassion, of kindness, reciprocity and womanhood.”
The “If I Ain’t Got You” singer added, “I want to thank her for everything that I am, because without her, I wouldn’t have the soul that I have, I wouldn’t have the love that I have, the will that I have, the versatility that I have or the strength that I have… Because without you, there would be no me, and that’s actually and artfully.” Whew, the tears!
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is famously estranged from her father, actor Jon Voight, but she was extremely close with her mother Marcheline Bertrand before she died from ovarian cancer in 2007. The Eternals actress and her brother James Haven shared a statement with People following Bertrand’s passing that read, “There are no words to express what an amazing woman and mother she was. She was our best friend.”
Additionally, Jolie spoke of her mom during a 60 Minutes interview in 2011. “I will never be as good a mother as she was,” the Hollywood icon said. “I will try my best, but I don’t think I could ever be. She was… she was just grace incarnate. She’s better than me.”
Kevin Hart
While Kevin Hart’s father was in and out of his life throughout his childhood, his mother Nancy was a constant presence for himself and his brother. The entertainment multi-hyphenate opened up about being raised by a single mother during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, during which Hart said, “The reason I am the way I am is because my mom was strong.”
The actor continued, “It may have affected my mom, but my mom was such a strong woman, she said, ‘Look, regardless of whatever your father’s doing and where he is, I have a job to do raising you, you’re going to do what you’re supposed to do and you’re going to grow up to be two intelligent men.'”
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling was raised by his single mom, Donna Gosling, and her role as his sole parent influenced his character greatly. During a June 2016 interview with Evening Standard, The Notebook icon shared, “I think women are better than men. They are stronger. More evolved. You can tell especially when you have daughters and you see their early stages, they are just leaps and bounds beyond boys immediately.”
Gosling continued, “I’ve always liked women more. I was brought up by my mother and older sister. I found my way into dance class. My home life now is mostly women. They are better than us. They make me better.”
The Barbie star made his directorial debut in 2014 with his film Lost River, which was inspired by his life growing up with a single mother. “My mom is very beautiful and was a single mom,” he said in May 2015 after a screening of the film, according to the Wisconsin Gazette. “When you’re a kid and you have a single mom, all men feel like wolves. Guys would whistle at her — it was very predatory and threatening. As a kid I felt helpless, so you start to imagine all these [scenarios] where you can do something. You see the world through the filter of your imagination.”
Eva Mendes
Though Eva Mendes’ father was involved in her life, she and her siblings were predominantly raised by their mother, also named Eva. After the Hitch star finished filming Girl in Progress, in which she played a single mother, Mendes told Quinceanera, “During filming, I called my mom a few times to tell her thank you. Because it’s tough. Raising a child on your own is really tough.”
Julia Roberts
After divorcing her father in 1971, Julia Roberts’ mother Betty Lou Bredemus raised her and her siblings as a single mom. The Pretty Woman icon told People in 2017, “My mom worked a full-time job and raised three girls pretty much on her own. My brother [actor Eric Roberts] is older, so he was gone and out of the house. She never showed the strain of it.”
Mariah Carey
In her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the iconic singer opened up about her turbulent relationship with her single mother, Patricia. Addressing the “significant neglect” she faced after Patricia divorced her father, Carey wrote, “I loved her deeply, and, like most kids, I wanted her to be a safe place for me. Above all, I desperately wanted to believe her.”
The Queen of Christmas continued, “But ours is a story of betrayal and beauty. Of love and abandonment. Of sacrifice and survival. I’ve emancipated myself from bondage several times, but there is a cloud of sadness that I suspect will always hang over me, not simply because of my mother but because of our complicated journey together.”
Carey added, “It has caused me so much pain and confusion. Time has shown me there is no benefit in trying to protect people who never tried to protect me. Time and motherhood have finally given me the courage to honestly face who my mother has been to me.”
Jay-Z
When Jay-Z’s father abandoned his mother Gloria Carter, she divorced him and continued raising the rapper and his siblings on her own. In 2009, Jay-Z called his mom his “one positive Black role model,” telling Oprah, “She worked two jobs and did whatever she had to do for us.”
The “Empire State of Mind” rapper also opened up about how one of Carter’s philosophies helped him fully embrace his passion for music. “My mom always taught me — you know, little boys listen to their moms too much — that whatever you put into something is what you’re going to get out of it,” Jay-Z shared. He recalled, “I had to fully let go of what I was doing before for the music to be successful. That was a leap of faith for me. I said, ‘I have to give this everything.'”
Leonardo DiCaprio
Throughout his career, Leonardo DiCaprio has credited both his parents with helping him get to where he is today. Though they parted ways when he was a toddler, the Hollywood icon seems to harbor no hard feelings about being raised by divorced parents.
After winning a Golden Globe in January 2014, the Titanic star told Access Online, “I wouldn’t be doing any of this if it weren’t for [my mother], both my parents.” Of his mom Irmelin Indenbirken, who experienced a difficult childhood in Germany post-World War II, DiCaprio continued, “She supported this little kid who said, ‘I want to be an actor,’ at 12 years old, which is ridiculous, and she drove me to all these auditions. She’s the only reason I’m able to do what I do.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs
When Sean “Diddy” Combs was a toddler, his father passed away, leaving his mother, Janice Combs, to raise him and his sister on her own. Of her steadfast dedication, the rapper told VH1, “Every single day, she was there. And that’s something that you’d expect, but it meant so much to me. It meant so much to me.”
For the outlet’s Dear Mama special, Combs also shared, “She sacrificed everything to make sure that we were well taken care of and that we received the best possible education. And that we would always have the opportunity to go on and be great.” He continued, “She taught me to believe in myself and trust in my dreams. She instilled in me the importance of family and the power of love.”
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert lost his father and two of his 10 siblings to a plane crash when he was just 10 years old. His mother, Lorna Colbert, continued to raise her eight surviving children, and she and Stephen specifically became closer in the aftermath of their family tragedy.
Of grieving together, Colbert once told People, “I was there with my mom, she was there for me, and I sort of kept her going. Mom and I used to joke that I raised my mom, because at a certain point it had changed her completely and it changed me completely.”
Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez’s mom Mandy Teefey was just 16 years old when she had the entertainment multi-hyphenate. The “Lose You to Love Me” singer’s parents split when she was 5, and when she was 18, Gomez recognized the hardships Teefey had to face while raising her alone.
“Having me at 16 had to have been a big responsibility,” she said during a June 2011 E! interview. “My mom gave up everything for me and had, like, three jobs. She supported me, sacrificed her life for me.”
Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber’s mom, Pattie Mallette, welcomed the musician when she was just 17 years old. She raised Bieber by herself, and after he became a household name, he released a song he wrote in her honor.
“I wrote a song for my mom. But I’m going to put it out on Mother’s Day,” Bieber told MTV News in May 2012 of his track “Turn Into You.” He continued, “[It’s] about the struggles, I say in the song. She had me at, like, the age I am now. [It’s about] just the struggles she went through and how brave she was, and I think the world needed to know that.”
In the song, Bieber sings, “You worked two jobs to keep a roof up over our heads/You chose life for me, no you never gave up/I admire you for the strength you instilled in me.”
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson’s father divorced her mom Jeanne Taylor when the musician was 6 years old. While she’s been open about having no relationship with her dad, writing the song “Piece by Piece” about their estrangement, Clarkson has also been open about Taylor’s circumstances having shaped her character.
During a parenting panel hosted by TODAY and The Voice in 2018, the “Because of You” singer gave a loving shoutout to her mom. “How I’ve been able to handle this industry and what has been thrown at me, I can’t thank her enough,” Clarkson began.
“She was the perfect mom. I don’t think there’s a perfect mom; I think there’s a perfect mom to mold their kids for their situations,” the American Idol winner opined. Clarkson continued, “I thank my mom every day, because I wouldn’t have been able to handle the criticism and flat-out ‘I hope your baby chokes on its umbilical cord and dies’ tweets. You’re like ‘Have a nice day, God bless.’ My mom was a hard mom. She was like ‘Get up, try again.’ I think it really served me well.”
Kanye West
When Kanye West was 3 years old, his mother Donda West divorced his father. She raised the rapper as a single mother, and he’s spent much of his career being outspoken about the closeness of their relationship before her untimely death in 2007.
In addition to writing songs like “Hey Mama” and “Only One” in her honor, Kanye opened up about the ways Donda inspired him in both life and death during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “She really supported me, and she always wanted me to be the best that I could be and not get hung up on the small things,” the “Power” rapper told DeGeneres in October 2008. “So, with her not being here to try and talk me into doing things, I just try to do things she would want me to do,” Kanye said of her lasting impact on him.
Christina Aguilera
Before Christina Aguilera’s parents went their separate ways, her mother Shelly Kearns was regularly abused by her father.
During a March 2010 interview with Paper Magazine, the iconic pop star recalled a few difficult memories from her childhood. “I watched my mom have to be submissive, watch her Ps and Qs or she’s gonna get beat up,” Aguilera shared. She continued, “You can either be, unfortunately, so damaged by it that you take a turn for the worse, or you can feel empowered by it and make choices to never go down that route.”
Kearns opted for the latter, a decision Aguilera has expressed admiration of many times — including when she became a single mother herself following her split from Jordan Bratman. During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in November 2010, the “Say Something” singer said, “More power to single moms and those out there doing it. I was raised by a single mom — I’m a smart girl and I make choices for specific reasons.”
Missy Elliott
After enduring domestic violence at the hands of Missy Elliott’s father, her mother Patricia made the brave decision to leave him. During an interview with The Observer, the rapper opened up about the experience. “We left my father with a fork, a spoon, and a blanket,” Elliott recalled. “Ooooh, that was the scariest time of my life. I thought he would find us and he would kill us. I lived in fear for a long time,” she confessed.
Demi Lovato
After Demi Lovato’s father began displaying substance abuse issues and violent behavior, the musician’s mom, Dianna De La Garza, divorced him and continued raising her eldest daughters alone. Lovato was 2 years old at the time.
In her 2013 memoir, Falling With Wings, De La Garza wrote, “It broke my heart to realize that my girls had seen and heard so many things that must have terrified them. Starting over as a single mom was hard. But I finally felt free.”
The former Disney star wrote the foreword for her mother’s book, in which she lovingly penned, “I’m so proud of my mom for achieving something she’s always wanted to do — tell her story. She’s resilient, inspiring, and strong. Because of her journey and strength to overcome the obstacles that she’s faced in her life, she is my hero.”
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron has an extremely close connection with her mom, Gerda Martiz. Their unbreakable bond was cemented on a night in 1991 when Martiz shot and killed Theron’s alcoholic father in self-defense — the actress was 15 at the time.
Theron opened up about the harrowing experience during a 2019 conversation with NPR. “My father was so drunk that he shouldn’t have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun,” the Bombshell star said. “My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door because he was trying to push through the door.”
Theron continued, “So both of us were leaning against the door from the inside to have him not be able to push through. He took a step back and just shot through the door three times. None of the bullets ever hit us, which is just a miracle,” she added.
To save her daughter and herself, Martiz shot her husband. “In self-defense, she ended the threat,” Theron concluded.
Marshall “Eminem” Mathers
The tumultuous relationship between Marshall “Eminem” Mathers and his single mom, Debbie Mathers, is no secret — the rapper’s movie 8 Mile made sure of that. However, in 2013, Eminem released the song “Headlights,” during which he raps, “I love you Debbie Mathers, oh what a tangled web we have/And I’m mad I didn’t get the chance to thank you for being my mom and my dad.”