Cat-astrophy!
How Jennifer overcame family tragedy
Jennifer Hudson has a special way of keeping track of her biggest achievements in life – she names her pets after them.
One of her dogs is Oscar and one Grammy, while her newest puppy has been given the moniker Dreamgirl in honour of the movie that catapulted her to stardom.
No prizes, then, for guessing what she might name the next addition to her family.
Laughs Jennifer, who stars in the big-screen version of the musical Cats, opening in New Zealand on Boxing Day, “I’m thinking about getting a cat and naming it Grizabella.”
Jennifer joins a host of fellow A-listers in the adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash-hit stage musical, including Taylor Swift, Dame Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Rebel Wilson and Sir Ian McKellen.
And Hollywood is already abuzz with praise for her rendition of Grizabella, the shabby outcast feline who stops the show with the song “Memory”. If the pundits are correct, she might have to name her next dog Oscar II.
The world of glittering awards shows is certainly a far cry from where Jennifer started life. Born and raised in Chicago – the city she still calls home – Jennifer, her brother Jason and sister Julia were brought up by their single mum Darnell Donerson.
Like many members of her extended family, Jennifer loved to sing, but she constantly battled with nerves and sometimes failed to get out a single note. At her grandmother’s 91st birthday, she remembers everyone laughing and saying, “She can’t sing.” But by keeping her eyes closed – a technique she continued to use until she was 19 – she made it through the entire performance and eventually looked up to a standing ovation.
Jennifer credits Darnell for fostering her talent without being too pushy. “She used to tell us, ‘No matter what you put your mind to, you can do.’”
As she grew in confidence, Jennifer set out not just to put her mind to making a life for herself but to reunite her family. Her dad Samuel was a bus driver who’d fathered 27 children over his lifetime and as a child she hardly knew him or her half-siblings.
“Eleven girls, 16 boys. I’m the youngest, or at least in the last two or three,” says Jennifer. “And it was always my dream – because I love family – to have a giant table with all my siblings. Just imagine the giant table! So when I turned 15, we went to go look for our dad – me and my sister.”
They got more than they bargained for. Not only did they find Samuel, he moved in and lived with them until he died a year or so later. “He was supposed to drive me to college, but he passed before he could,” says the actress.
Her dream of meeting every one of her siblings still hasn’t been fulfilled, although, she says, she’s met “quite a few”.
After leaving school, Jennifer got her first professional singing job, on a cruise ship. In 2004, two days after the job ended, she auditioned for the third season of AmericanIdol. She made the cut, although she didn’t win. In fact, she came seventh. But it got her noticed.
She landed a recording deal and a year later was cast alongside Beyoncé in the movie Dreamgirls – a role that won her a 2007 Oscar and made her a superstar.
The following year, however, her world fell apart. Jennifer’s mother Darnell, 57, brother Jason, 29, and nephew Julian King, seven, were all killed in a shooting carried out by her sister’s estranged husband, William Balfour.
Balfour was given three life sentences for the killings. For Jennifer, recovering from the tragedy has been an ongoing process.
The year after the murders, she gave birth to son David, now 10. She split from David’s dad, wrestler David Otunga, 39, in 2017.
“To live in a way that honours them is what presses you forward,” she says of her three slain family members. “Not to mention, thank God, that I have a child to live for.”
No-one can accuse Jennifer of not living her best life, both before and since the tragedy. In addition to her Oscar, the 38-year-old has won a Bafta, a Golden Globe and two Grammys and has also conquered the small screen, guest-judging on The X-Factor and criss-crossing the Atlantic to judge both the US and UK versions of TheVoice. The self-confessed “homebody” has appeared in more than 15 films, released three studio albums and performed on seven soundtracks.
But despite her serious acting chops, the star – whose next role is playing soul legend Aretha Franklin in a biopic – took no chances when preparing for Cats.
“I looked up everyone’s version of Grizabella and I’d stay up all night doing research,” she says, adding with a laugh, “I’ve never been a cat before!”
To live in a way that honours them is what presses you forward’