Jay-Z's mother Gloria Carter has opened up about her journey to self-acceptance, delivering an emotional speech while accepting a Special Recognition award at this week's GLAAD Awards.
The honour came after Carter last year recorded a spoken verse on Jay-Z's song called "Smile", inspired by her coming out to her son.
“Thanks to my partner for loving me and helping me free myself from being in the shadows," Carter said onstage in New York.
She continued: "Thanks to you. To all the people whose lives I touched for your support by just telling my truth… "Smile" became a reality because I shared with my son who I am. Not that people didn’t know. I was just someone that they didn’t talk about but they loved me anyway."
"But for me this was the first time that I spoke to anyone about who I really am. My son cried, and said, ‘it must have been horrible to live that way for so long’."
"My life wasn’t horrible. I chose to protect my family from ignorance. I was happy but I was not free,” she concluded.
Jay-Z has previously spoken out about his mother's sexuality, telling David Letterman that he cried when she came out.
“Imagine having lived your life for someone else, and you think you’re protecting your kids. For my mother to have to live as someone that she wasn’t and hide and protect her kids… and didn’t want to embarrass her kids, you know, for all this time," he said on Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
“For her to sit in front of me and tell me 'I think I love someone', I mean, I really cried. That’s a real story. I cried because I was so happy for her that she was free."
