Singer Gladys Knight and William McDowell attend the Soul Prepare Awards 2013 on the Orleans Enviornment on November 8, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Supply: Maury Phillips/BET / Getty
Gladys Knight has assured followers her psychological well being is simply advantageous after some considerations sparked by her son.
The soul music legend is talking out after her eldest son, Shanga Hankerson, claimed his mom was dealing with elder abuse from her much-younger husband, William McDowell. Based on Knight, these claims couldn’t be farther from the reality.
“I’m sorry that my well being and performances have been misrepresented,” she mentioned in an announcement, per the New York Put up. “I would like my followers and people involved to relaxation assured I’m doing very properly for somebody who has been on stage for 3 quarters of a century, arduous to imagine, proper?”
The songstress continued, “I’m wholesome and completely satisfied and visiting family and friends these previous couple of months. I’m excited to get again on the highway with my sisters and on stage with The Queens Tour. See you quickly.”
Along with Knight’s assertion, her publicist, Laura Herlovich, additionally debunked the rumors, telling the outlet that the legendary singer and her crew are “significantly saddened by Shanga’s unfounded allegations, particularly as he has had no substantial contact together with her.”
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She added, “At the moment our attorneys don’t have any alternative however to discover any and all authorized treatments attributable to Shanga’s defamatory feedback.”
Knight’s rebuttal got here after Hankerson, 49, claimed that his mom was being subjected to elder abuse by the hands of McDowell. He made such claims throughout an interview with The Shade Room, alleging McDowell was forcing Knight to tour regardless of her declining well being.
“I did my finest to provide [McDowell] the house to play the function of husband and do what was in my mother’s finest curiosity, and he has not performed that,” he alleged on the time. “Why is she working? Why is she on this scenario the place she’s being made to imagine that she has to work like this? That’s actually my concern with it.”
Hankerson went on to recall a time when the “Each Beat of My Coronary heart” singer allegedly “zoned out” whereas performing together with her band.
“The band performed about two or three further bars. And she or he zoned out. The background singer began singing…and that introduced her again,” Hankerson defined. “They’re having to rewind the teleprompters as a result of my mother is forgetting to even take a look at them.”
Knight and McDowell, who’s reportedly 33 years youthful than the soul singer, obtained married in 2001.
Along with Shanga, whom she shares with music govt Barry Hankerson, the seven-time Grammy winner additionally has daughter Kenya Newman, 62, and late son, James Newman III, together with her first ex-husband, James Newman.
Knight was additionally married to Shanga’s father, Barry, from 1974 to 1979, and former Ohio consultant, Les Brown, from 1995 to 1997.
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