Jay-Z Helped Kelly Rowland Reunite With Her Estranged Father After 30 Years
Kelly Rowland rose to fame as a part of the hitmaking girl group Destiny’s Child alongside Beyoncé and Michelle Williams. Over two decades since then, Rowland made a big change in her personal life after reconnecting with her father — and it was in part thanks to Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z.
Kelly Rowland dealt with ‘abandonment’ from her father for decades
For most of her life, Rowland wasn’t in touch with her father by birth, Christopher Lovett. But in a 2020 Instagram post, she revealed that after three decades having not seen him, the two finally reconnected in 2018 after the birth of her son, Titan, and the death of her mother, Doris Rowland Garrison.
“This was honestly one of the most pivotal moments in my life! After 30 years of not seeing him, not speaking to him…what would THAT mean, for me, my family, my psyche?” she said. “When I tell you I was petrified, I was walking to meet him, and my feet suddenly felt like they weighed A TON, needless to say I was overcome with anxiety, and I had a full-on anxiety attack, in that moment I felt like the abandoned 8-year-old.”
“My team calmed me down. And as I turn the corner, in my head I was cursing this man, ‘Why didn’t you come find me?’ ‘Did you love me?’ ‘Am I worthy?’ And when I looked at him, and he looked at me, NOTHING CAME TO MY LIPS, not one word. I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, ‘Listen,'” she continued. “I listened to him, I was nervous to trust him, nervous to forgive him, nervous to love him nervous about it all. And the truth is, I already loved him. I spoke to my protective husband and those closest to me and they encourage me to forgive and jump! And since this time, I have forgiven, and we have spoken every day since!”
Jay-Z helped Kelly Rowland reconnect with her father
In a March 2022 appearance on Today, Rowland revealed that she got an extra push to meet up with her father thanks to superstar rapper Jay-Z. “He said, ‘Love is all about risk. You gotta decide if you’re gonna jump,'” she recounted.
When she first reconnected with him, she felt as if her story was finally being completed. “All the things I’d heard on one side of the story from my mother, God rest her soul, he had answers to some of them, so some of the pages of this book, of us, were filling in,” she said.
She’s happy to have a relationship with her father again
Overall, Rowland couldn’t happier to have a loving relationship with her father today. “We are not perfect … we have to give our parents grace … [and] forgiveness is always right there,” she said.
“Underneath all the disappointment and hurt and anger and fear, that’s somebody you love.”
