Kelly Rowland can still feel her mother’s presence, nearly a decade after her passing. She opened up about the last moments she spent with Doris Rowland Garrison in a new interview on the “High Low With EmRata” podcast.
Garrison passed away at the age of 66 in December 2014. The Destiny’s Child singer had just given birth to her and husband Tim Weatherspoon’s first child, a son named Titan Jewell, less than four weeks prior to her mother’s death.
“Losing people I love scares the s–t out of me,” said Rowland when asked about her fears at the 37-minute and 20-second mark of the episode that was uploaded to YouTube on June 6. Host Emily Ratajkowski followed up by inquiring about the acclaimed artist’s biggest regret.
“As of now, I don’t have any, thank God,” said the “Simply Deep” vocalist before giving the question more consideration.
Related: Kelly Rowland Opens Up About Her Struggles with Gentle Parenting
As Ratajkowski touched on grief and learning to accept and appreciate all of life’s experiences, the 42-year-old disclosed that the way she and Garrison’s last in-person encounter played out could have easily been a life-long regret.
“The last embrace I had with my mother was a really tough one. It was a lot of, like, tension there,” she disclosed. “But it makes me a better mom. You know what I mean?” asked Rowland as the supermodel-turned-podcast-host encouraged her to elaborate.
She went on to reveal that the two had gotten into a huge fallout right before Garrison was leaving Rowland’s California home after visiting with her new grandchild.
“It was time for her plane ride and we had this really bad argument right before and before she left, ‘cause her car was downstairs. I remember my husband saying, ‘Give your mom a hug, babe.’ And I was like, ‘I’m not giving her,’ I was so mad,” recalled the Grammy Award winner.
“And next thing I knew, I gave her this wack a— hug and the next call I got was two weeks later that she was gonna pass in like hours,” she added.
Rowland said that memory forever changed her.
“It made me more present, it made me not want to hold anger or harbor anger towards anybody ‘cause life is too short. It made me want to be honest with somebody and tell them how I felt in the moment, even if I’m mad,” noted the multi-hyphenate talent.
Viewers found that the singer’s honesty resonated with them. “Her story about her mother hit me to my core. there is no point to harbour anger towards people you love,” wrote one person.
Another commented, “I’m sorry she went through that with her mother (Delores?) and I hope she’s healed the pain. She has reconciled with her father though so I’m kinda surprised she didn’t mention him.”
The “Fantasy Football” actress has openly spoken about the strained relationship she shared with her mother.
“It’s so crazy because my mom and I had the most tumultuous relationship, and now when I’m able to look back at some of her decisions that she made, the things that she did, I realize that we’re all products of our environment,” Rowland told Tamron Hall in 2020.
In 2017, she reconnected with her father, Christopher Lovett, after being estranged for over three decades. It was only while grieving the loss of her mother and witnessing her husband father their son that she became open to reconciliation.
“I said, ‘I really need to know him. I want to meet him.’ I think I … had these feelings of like, ‘Oh my God, I have no parents.’ And it was like, no, you do, you have one left,” said the songstress when she and Lovett appeared on “Today with Hoda & Jenna.”
Last year, Rowland opened up to friend and radio personality Angie Martinez about her gentle parenting approach with her sons. She and Weatherspoon welcomed their second child, Noah Jon, in January 2021. She told Martinez that making her children feel seen and respected is helping her unlearn some of the things she experienced in her own childhood.
