Eminem has just confirmed some sad news. His mother, Debbie Nelson, died at the age of 69. No cause was specified by Slim Shady's representative to Peoplebut she was battling lung cancer.
The rapper's fans know Debbie Nelson well, about whom he has often spoken in his songs, and rarely in a positive way. Marshall Mathers III, his real name, first declared in 1999 in his hit My Name Is that his mother “did more drugs” than him. In 2002, in the title Cleaning Out My Closethe described his mother as suffering from Münchhausen syndrome. She would have invented illnesses for him and would have treated him when he had nothing. In 2009, in the song My Mumit listed the medications she had made him take during his childhood.
Conflictful relationship
Debbie Nelson filed a defamation suit against her son for My Name Is as well as comments he subsequently made against her in the media. Justice ruled in her favor, but the judge only awarded her $25,000 out of the $11 million she claimed. She also told her version of their story in a book, My Son Marshall, My Son Eminemreleased in 2008. Over the years, their relationship seemed to have calmed down. So, in 2013 in the song Headlightshe made his mea culpa, believing that he had gone too far and had hurt his mother with his raps. In 2022, when Eminem was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Debbie Nelson congratulated her son of whom she was “very proud”.
Eminem's father, with whom the rapper had no contact, died in 2019 at the age of 67. Marshall Mathers Jr. was 22 when he married Debbie Nelson, who was 15. Eminem was born two years later and the couple quickly broke up when the father became violent and abusive. Thirteen years after the birth of the rapper, Debbie Nelson, who had kept her married name, had another son, Nathan Mathers. He was placed in a foster home at the age of 8 and Eminem obtained custody of his half-brother when the latter was 16 years old.
