To the world, Teresa Caldwell is the mother and manager to rapper Bow Wow. But underneath the surface, the rockstar “momager” is so much more. On Wednesday, May 20, Caldwell opened up to Atlanta Black Star in an exclusive telephone interview about her upcoming memoir, “I Once Was Her.” In the book, she dishes about her traumatic childhood, the physical and emotional abuse she endured in the past, and her experience raising a child as a single mother.
During the interview, Caldwell recounted her rocky relationship with her parents, implying that they left a few scars on her childhood. “I wanted to be a daddy’s girl. I loved my dad. But my dad..I felt like my dad called me names. I felt like he wasn’t a good father and so growing up I attracted my dad. I attracted men who weren’t good men,” she said.
The now successful businesswoman shared that her relationship with her mother was not any better when she was growing up. “My mother chose her boyfriend over me. My mother was in a very abusive relationship, so my mother’s boyfriend used to beat her. I was the one that would call the police. The last time he knocked my mother’s teeth out… like five of her teeth,” she explained. Caldwell revealed she called the police on her mother’s boyfriend, and he was arrested. After he was released from jail, her mother allowed him to move back into their home. However, her mother kicked Caldwell out of the house upon his return, causing her to be homeless at the age of 15.
“I remember walking around the street with my clothes in my trash bag. I didn’t know where I was going. I ended up meeting someone on the city bus, and it was my sister’s friend,” she recalled. She explained that her sister’s friend allowed Caldwell to stay with her, but they did not have any gas. “I went and bought an electric skillet and I kept the electric skillet in my bedroom,” she shared. Caldwell implied that her difficult childhood made her work hard to ensure she had a great relationship with Bow Wow.
“I told myself and I made a promise to God. I was like, ‘I’m going to be the best mother that I can be because I would never ever ever want my child to go through what I went through,” she concluded.
As for managing her son, the Ohio native expressed that the music industry changed and was no longer fun for her. While she stepped back from managing Bow Wow’s rap career, she still oversees his television and film endeavors. On top of focusing on her son, Caldwell is an interior designer for some high-end clients. Her memoir will be released on June 26. She hinted that she wanted her book to serve as a testimony for people, explaining that people can overcome anything. “I want my fans to take away from my book that you can push through the pain… with God.. you can push through it,” she concluded.
