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owerful vocals on songs including nd I Am Telling You I’m Not Going nd One Night Only landed Jennifer an scar and Golden Globe for Best Suporting Actress. Jennifer then started work on her ebut album, producing the hit single potlight in 2008.
Tragedy
In September that year her boyfriend, WE wrestler and Harvard law raduate David Otunga, popped the uestion and she said yes. J-Hud couldn’t have been flying igher – until the most horrendous agedy struck just one month later. Jennifer’s 57-year-old mother Darnell onnerson and her 29-year-old brother ason were found shot dead inside the mily home Darnell shared with Jen’s ster Julia. Julia’s seven-year-old son Julian – Jennifer’s nephew – was reported missing and his body found three days later. The culprit was Julia’s estranged husband William Balfour and he was jailed for three murders in 2012. He claimed he couldn’t cope with the separation from his ex-wife and child.
It seems almost unthinkable, but Jennifer even managed to forgive her brother-in-law.
She said: “Had he had the love that my mother gave us, or the background that some have, then he would have stood a chance. How could your heart not go out to that?”
Jennifer took a year out afterwards but, thankfully, happier times were ahead. She gave birth to son David in 2009 and credits him as having “saved her life” and helped her survive that dark point.
The star also landed a clutch of other screen roles, including playing Sarah Jessica Parker’s PA in the Sex And The City film.
Jennifer took the chance to revamp her image, losing a whopping five-and-ahalf stone and going from a UK size 18 to a slender size eight.
She’s kept the weight off and reckons it’s down to portion control and thinking carefully about what she eats.
Figure
But, despite her fantastic figure, you won’t catch J-Hud putting too much on show. She says: “I like my body, but I don’t like to show too much.
“My big David [her fiancé] will say, ‘Remember, you’re somebody’s mother,’ and my little David will say ‘Mummy, I can see a lot of your legs’ if he thinks I’m wearing something too short.
“I don’t want to give too much away. I like to look good and it’s nice if people think I look sexy, but I hope they see a lot more than just that.”
Jennifer has continued to put out music and land acting roles and last month released Remember Me, the first track from her fourth album.
She is also set to star in a new comedy film opposite Adam Sandler.
But it’s since her turn on The Voice that British audiences have really taken her to their hearts.
Viewers love her liveliness, genuine emotion and ability to constantly burst into song, without being annoying.
Luckily for fans of the show, she says she “would love” to do another series.
But now it’s her big moment as she takes her two remaining acts – Mo and Jamie Miller – to the final.
She says: “It doesn’t matter to me if Mo or Jamie don’t win. It’s what they want out of this. You don’t always have to win. I’m a product of that.”