Debbie Nelson, the mother of the rapper Eminem, died on Monday night after a battle with lung cancer. She was 69 years-old.
Nelson Passes Away
A rep for Eminem confirmed to People Magazine that Nelson died in St. Joseph, Missouri due to complications from lung cancer. Her illness had first been reported to the public back in September.
Nelson was born on a military base in Kansas back in 1955 as the oldest of five children. She wrote in her 2008 memoir My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem that she grew up in a “large dysfunctional family.” Nelson’s parents split when she was 10, and she was left responsible to provide for her younger siblings.
Nelson was just 16 when she married Eminem’s father Marshall Bruce Mathers. They welcomed Eminem the next year in 1972.
Eminem, 52, and Nelson had a very troubled relationship over the years, which the rapper would sometimes include in his music. She famously sued her son for $11 million for defamation after he allegedly called her out in his 2002 song “Cleanin’ Out My Closet.”
“Now, I would never diss my own mama just to get recognition,” Eminem rapped in that single. “Take a second to listen ‘fore you think this record is dissin’ / But put yourself in my position, just try to envision / Witnessin’ your mama poppin’ prescription pills in the kitchen.”
In her memoir, Nelson denied the allegations made about her in this rap.
“What mother wants to be known as a pill-popping alcoholic who lives on welfare?” she wrote. “None of it was true, but the fibs kept getting bigger, and ultimately Marshall and I became estranged.”
Though a judge ruled in her favor, Nelson was only granted $25,000 of the $11 million dollars that she asked for. She ended up eventually just being entitled to about $1,600 after her lawyer fees.
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Eminem Sounds Off
In 2008, Nelson told The Village Voice that she was considering reconciling with Eminem.
“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.”
The next year, Eminem opened up about his relationship with his mother.
“One of the things that I said and that I realized is, I mean at the end of the day, she’s my mother and I love her, because she’s mother,” he said in 2009. “I mean, even though we don’t really speak, she is my mother.”
“I do love her and I think I got a better understanding of what she was going through or what she may be going through, now that I see myself and how I actually became…I think that’s there a little compassion factor that goes with that,” he continued.
Eminem went on to admit that he hadn’t spoken to his mother in years.
“Probably been a couple of years, probably about three, maybe four years, something like that,” he confessed.
Check out Eminem’s full comments on this in the video below.
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Nelson Supports Eminem From Afar
In 2013, fans speculated that Eminem was apologizing to his mother with his song “Headlights.”
“And I’m mad I didn’t get the chance to thank you for being my mom and my dad,” he sings in this song. “So Mom, please accept this as a tribute I wrote on this jet.”
Nelson would go on to continue celebrating Eminem from afar for the rest of her life. After he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, Nelson congratulated Eminem in a video that has since been deleted from social media.
“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 the footage.
“I love you very much. I knew you’d get there. It’s been a long ride,” Nelson added at the time. “I’m very, very proud of you.”
Eminem’s father, who he was also estranged from, died in 2019 at the age of 67. Aside from Eminem, Nelson is also survived by her other son Nathan Mathers.
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