,type=downsize)
Angels come in all forms. For Jennifer Hudson it was her son David Otunga Jr.. In a new interview with Glamour, the 34-year-old Oscar winner credited the birth of her son six years ago with saving her after a family tragedy that made headlines.
Jennifer says her 6-year-old son David saved her life Photo: Getty Images
In October, 2008, the singer's mother Darnell Donerson and brother Jason Hudson were found shot to death inside of their Chicago home by her estranged brother-in-law William Balfour. The body of her 7-year-old nephew Julian King was found a few days later.
"I went from being an aunt, having a mom, and being a child to not having a mom, becoming a mom, and raising my own child," Jennifer told the magazine. "I tell David all the time, 'You saved my life.'"
The singer and actress, who first rose to fame as a finalist on the reality talent competition American Idol in 2004, said she doesn't like to talk about the issue with anyone who hasn't experienced loss themselves.
"It's frustrating as hell to me to have somebody who ain't lost nothing try to talk to me about it," she said. "I want to say, 'Don't even bother, because you know nothing.'"
She continued: "But you never know how much you can get through until you're going through it."
Jennifer and her fiancé David Otunga with their son David Jr. Photo: Getty Images
Jennifer, who is engaged to her son's father WWE wrestler David Otunga, also worked on the upcoming Spike Lee film Chi-Raq, which she says was difficult to film as she plays a mother who loses her child to gang violence.
"There's a scene where we're all holding up boards with [photos of] our slain children on them. I turned around, and it's a sea of real women [as extras] holding pictures of children they actually lost," she told the magazine. "I'm a character holding a picture of a little girl, but in real life I have the same story."
Next up for the Chicago native is another demanding and emotionally challenging role as she makes her Broadway debut as free-spirited blues singer Shug Avery in The Color Purple next month. She told HELLO! earlier this year that she was looking forward to living and working in the Big Apple.
"I haven’t been stationary for the last 15 years so this will be the first break ever where I get to sit in one spot, which is New York, doing what I love," she said of doing the play, which is being produced by Oprah. "It's an American classic, The Color Purple, so it comes with a great expectation. I want to uphold that, and Broadway, I want to be able to do it justice."
As they say on Broadway: Break a leg, Jennifer!