Los Angeles:
Rapper Eminem’s mother Debbie Nelson has passed away. She was 69.
As per Eminem’s rep, Nelson died on December 2 from complications related to lung cancer, People reported.
Nelson was born in 1955. At age 16, she married Eminem’s father, Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. Two years later, she welcomed the “Lose Yourself” rapper in 1972.
Em and his mother went through a turbulent relationship during his childhood and into his Hall-of-Fame career. He apparently called her out in his 2002 song “Cleanin’ Out My Closet,” which led to Nelson suing her son for USD 11 million for defamation.
Nelson considered reconciling with Eminem in a 2008 interview with The Village Voice. “There’s hope for everybody,” she said at the time. “It’s a matter of just basically swallowing your pride. It’s like a cashed check. It’s over, it’s done. You need to move on.”
In 2013 when the rapper released “Headlights,” fans speculated that it was his apologizing to Nelson. “And I’m mad I didn’t get the chance to thank you for being my mom and my dad,” he sings in one part of the song. “So Mom, please accept this as a tribute I wrote on this jet.”
She celebrated Eminem from afar in recent years. When he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, she congratulated him online, as per People.
“Marshall, I want to say, I could not let this day go by without congratulating you on your induction into the Hall of Fame,” she said in a since-deleted video.
Along with Eminem, Nelson is survived by son Nathan Mathers.
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