NEW YORK (AP) — Jay-Z says he cried with joy when his mother came out to him as lesbian.
In the April 6 episode of “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman” on Netflix, Jay-Z says he was happy his mother was free.
The rap mogul says he’d known his mother was gay, but they discussed it for the first time eight months ago.
“This was the first time we had the conversation, and the first time I heard her say she loved her partner,” the “Empire State of Mind” rapper told Letterman.
“Like, ‘I feel like I love somebody.’ She said, ‘I feel like.’ She held that little bit back, still,” the rapper continued. “She didn’t say, ‘I’m in love,’ she said, ‘I feel like I love someone.’ And I just, I cried. I don’t even believe in crying because you’re happy. I don’t even know what that is.”
Jay-Z says his mother had to live as someone she wasn’t because she didn’t want to embarrass her children.
Gloria Carter came out on Jay-Z’s 2017 song “Smile,” which featured her poem “Livin in the Shadows.”
Associated Press contributed to this story.
