The Grammy-winning American gospel singer Kirk Franklin has disclosed that at the age of thirty-two, he lost contact with his mother.
The 54-year-old musician revealed during an appearance on the “Funky Friday” podcast that he had cut off contact with his real mother due to an event in which she brought her new husband along when they were working to rehabilitate his sister, who had recently been released from prison.
This is going to be the first time I ever tell this story. I stopped communicating with my biological mother for this reason. When my sister, then 32, was released from prison, I was the sole one attempting to assist her with housing and other necessities,” he claimed.
She continued to struggle with drugs. A thirty-two-year-old could not handle it. In order to assist her, we had to conduct an intervention. Once more, this isn’t my kid. She isn’t my child. She is my sibling. She is mothered.
We had a family gathering, but my birth mother and her new spouse showed there. Everything was going well with the intervention. After we all hugged, someone remarked, “This is so beautiful,” since we hadn’t seen each other in years. This is the proper behaviour for a family.
“And I said this is not about us, this is about my sister who just got released. After I said that, my mother’s new husband yelled, ‘What you need to do, is call your mama sometimes.’ I said, ‘Sir, I don’t know who you are but she’s the mother, I’m the child.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but you call yourself a Christian.’
“The argument got heated and my mother did something that crushed my heart. She grabbed his hand and said, ‘Come on, baby, let’s go.’ And she walked out of the house with her two kids. And I yelled at my mama, ‘That’s right, go ahead and walk out like you always do.’
“For the fact that she didn’t take that man’s hand and say, ‘Baby, stay away. This is between me and my kids. Kids I did not raise, kids I did not nurture, kids I did not provide for, kids I did not protect.’ She took that man’s hand and walked out with him. And I promised myself that as a little boy I couldn’t protect myself but as a grown man I would never be put in a position where you would treat me like that again.”