James Brown’s daughters Dr. Deanna Brown Thomas and Dr. Yamma Brown opened up about giving their father “grace” after witnessing him abuse their mom, Diedre Jenkins.
“I really feel prefer it’s a part of who he’s. It’s a part of our lives,” Yamma, 55, advised Hollywood Life in a Tuesday, February 20, interview. “There’s no sense in making an attempt to fake like one thing didn’t exist as a result of there’s extra blessings [with] you going via it and popping out a distinct particular person. I all the time say have grace for that particular person and what they went via in life and perceive that we’re all given grace, all of us make errors, have made errors, and can proceed to make errors.”
Yamma added that why she doesn’t “draw back” from the “harm” and “ache” that her dad induced, it’s essential to take the singer’s complete life “under consideration” when wanting again on his legacy.
“Not all of us will have the ability to even be so iconic relating to music and a genius in that respect and have all these other forms of pressures on us,” she defined. “Notice that there was harm and ache in his life from how he grew up, to actually charting his path and overcoming.”
Each daughters candidly tackle James’ abuse in A&E’s four-part docuseries, James Brown: Say It Loud, which started airing on Monday, February 19, and traces the trajectory of the musician’s life and profession. Partially one of many collection, Yamma reveals that she was six years outdated the final time she noticed her father hit her mother when she jumped as much as cease him.
“I speak about it within the sense that it occurred. It’s an unlucky time in anyone’s scenario, anyone’s life,” she says within the docuseries. “In the event that they’ve ever needed to undergo home violence, they know what that’s like. And it reveals that he was human as a result of he was flawed, nevertheless it is also a time to point out grace.”
Though their father’s romantic romances had been undoubtedly tumultuous, the ladies have clarified that he by no means turned his anger on them.
“He by no means had any sort of rage in the direction of us as a result of we had been his kids,” Deanna 55, advised Folks in an interview on Tuesday. “That was a scenario between a husband and a spouse. There’s completely different sort of affection, completely different sort of circumstances.”
She did, nevertheless, resent her father at instances for what she witnessed him doing to their mom. “I didn’t like him due to the sort of habits,” she continued. “I noticed loads rising up. I heard loads rising up that would have broken me for a lifetime.”
Jenkins was James’ second spouse after his first marriage to Velma Warren, with whom he shared sons Teddy Brown, Terry Brown and Larry Brown. The pair had been married for 11 years earlier than submitting for divorce in 1981. James wed third spouse Adrienne Rodriguez in 1984 and so they remained collectively till her demise in 1996. He moved on with Tomi Rae Hynie in 1997 and the couple welcomed son James Joseph Brown II in 2001. (James can also be the daddy of Daryl Brown and Lisa Brown from different relationships.)
Jenkins was the one girl to face abuse from James. He was arrested a number of instances for allegedly assaulting Rodriguez earlier than being arrested in 2004 for alleged home violence in opposition to Hynie. (James pled no contest in courtroom and was finally given a effective of $1,000.)
Kris Jenner, Keke Wyatt and extra celeb mother and father are extremely outnumbered at residence. Wyatt welcomed her eleventh child, son Ke’zyah, in September 2022, which is her second with husband Zackariah Darring. The singer and Darring additionally share son Ke’Riah. Wyatt additionally shares six older kids with ex-husband Rahman Morton and three extra with ex-husband Michael […]
Regardless of his turbulent marriage to Jenkins, Yamma advised Folks that her dad was capable of make amends with their mom earlier than his demise. (James died in 2006 from congestive coronary heart failure at age 76.)
“My dad did apologize to my mother,” she advised the outlet. “To not say that that was one thing that simply erased all the pieces, but in addition realizing that he had compassion in his coronary heart and my mother was receptive to that.”
Half 2 of James Brown: Say It Loud airs on A&E Tuesday, February 20, at 8 p.m. ET.
