Kelly Rowland credits advice from Jay-Z for helping her to reconnect with her estranged father.
The “Motivation” singer hadn’t seen Christopher Lovett for over 30 years until she reached out to him in 2018 and she praised the “99 Problems” hitmaker — who is married to her close friend Beyonce — for urging her to make the “jump” to do so.
Speaking on “Today,” she said: “He said, ‘Love is all about risk. You gotta decide if you’re gonna jump. You gonna jump?’ That’s what he asked me: ‘Are you gonna jump?'”
The 41-year-old star — who has Titan, 7, and Noah, 14 months, with husband Tim Weatherspoon — was raised by her mother after her dad decided he wasn’t ready for parenthood and Rowland always felt like there was something “missing” from her life.
She said: “I had a wonderful mom who supported me and loved me, but the truth is, there was always a piece of me that was kinda missing.
“For 30 years, my dad was absent in my life.”
The former Destiny’s Child star decided it was time to get back in touch following Titan’s birth and her mother’s death in 2014, and she met Lovett in a hotel in Atlanta and listened to him speak for two hours.
She wept as she said: “I learned that we are not perfect, and it broke my heart to know that there is going to be something about me that my kids is going to be disappointed about.
“Something, you don’t do it intentionally of course. You have to allow space. You’re not going to get it right every time and that’s OK.
“I had to give my dad grace. As parents, we have to give our parents grace. It’s never too late. Forgiveness is always right there.”
Rowland was joined by her father for part of the interview, and he said their meeting was “like a dream,” while the “Dilemma” hitmaker admitted she “needed” to hear Lovett tell her he loved her in order to heal and move forward.
She said: “It was necessary to the little girl in me that needed to hear that.
“It was necessary to hear it from a man. It was necessary to hear it from my father and when I thought about all the tumultuous relationships and trying to figure out men, like, that is the base and the foundation of it psychologically. So when I’m talking to therapists and I’m asking them about this, it all runs back to the abandonment issue.”
