Jennifer Hudson has a much bigger family than most people previously thought.
The singer recently sat down with “Your Mama’s Kitchen: Conversations from the Heart of the Home” podcast. During the chat, she explained that her father had over 20 children, which she found with help from her sister, Julia, and later brother, Jason. When Hudson was just 16, she went to locate her dad, Samuel Simpson, or Sam, as most know him.
“Yeah, it’s a lot of us. Apparently he had 27 children. That’s a lot of children,” Hudson revealed, adding that she is the youngest of the brood.
Hudson explained that it was her dream to know all of her siblings and have them together for a huge holiday celebration. So far, Hudson says she has met seven but would love to meet all of them.
“It was my father who told,” she continued. “When my grandmother on his side passed, my siblings over there were like, ‘Y’all got a sister that can really sing. You should meet her.’ Eventually, we all came together.”
Jason was tragically shot and killed along with their mother, Darnell Donerson, in 2008 by Julia’s estranged husband, William Balfour, who also killed her young son, Julian. With Hudson now having a son of her own, David Daniel Otunga Jr., the EGOT winner is serious about him harboring close connections with his cousins and her distant siblings.
“I love to try to make sure he has the closest thing to him… just making sure he has his cousins circle and that base and foundation,” the talk show host added.
