Lauryn Hill’s Daughter, Selah Marley, Likened Her Mother’s Discipline To Slavery
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 11: Selah Marley attends the What Goes Around Comes Around X eBay partnership launch event on June 11, 2019 in New York City.
Lauryn Hill and Rohan Marley’s daughter, Selah Marley, has recently come forward claiming that her mother was on “some slavery s—” when raising her.
In a two-hour-long video that Selah shared on Instagram, she also talked about her father being absent from her life. Hill has six children, five of whom are with Rohan, a former NFL star and the son of Reggae icon Bob Marley.
Although Selah praises how amazing Hill is as a woman, she also stated that Hill was “angry” during most of her childhood and that she lived with her grandmother “half the time.”
“My mom is an amazing woman, but she obviously didn’t do everything right. She was just very angry. So, so, so, so, so, so angry,” Selah said. “She was literally not easy to talk to and then half the time we didn’t live with her. I lived with my grandparents half the time… It’s crazy, I’m playing this trauma back in my head as I speak to you.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 18: Selah Marley attends the FENTY x Webster Pop-up Cocktail at The Webster on June 18, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Fenty)
“And then the threats, the constant threats… That belt man. That’s that slave s—,” Selah continued. “That was some slavery s—. All Black parents were on that s—.” Selah also recanted some of the things that she says Hill used to say to her. “You want me to embarrass you? You want me to give you something to cry about?” Selah recalled.“I’m not mad at a little discipline, but what can a five-year-old do? What can a seven-year-old do?”
“Honestly guys, I’m just hurting. I can’t even front that I’m not. I’ve been hurting for so much of my life and so much of my life has been me avoiding how much I’m really hurting just from the circumstances,” Selah went on before also saying that she has a form of dissociative identity disorder.
PARIS, FRANCE – MARCH 02: Selah Marley attends the Nina Ricci show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2018/2019 on March 2, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images for Nina Ricci)
“I have a form of split personality to some degree, I mean not to like you know diagnose myself, but just a form of a split because it’s like, a part of me stopped growing at the age that my dad left. Whenever that stopped, I feel like something just stopped or maybe it never grew, it never developed… especially when it comes to men, like males in my life,” she said. “They bring out this dark, dark, dark thing inside of me because I feel like I need them…like I hurt them because I’m mad at them because I’m mad at my father for not being around but I need them because I don’t have a father so I need someone…”
Selah then later shared a cryptic message on the social media platform. “NO MUD NO LOTUS THO MOTHERF—ER. I am grateful for all the pain that I’ve experienced & the mistakes that I’ve made (I am deeply sorry to anyone I have hurt) because I WILL come out of this on top (of my lower self) & I can’t wait to see me blossom because I just know that’s gonna be one pretty ass flower,” she wrote. “Cool beans. see u later. Goodnight. we’ll check in tm. love you all. thank you for your endless love light guidance, wisdom, and support. you are cherished.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEhk7vs_MKY&feature=emb_title
Glennisha Morgan is a Detroit-bred multimedia journalist and writer. She writes about intersectionality, hip-hop, pop culture, queer issues, race, feminism, and her truth. Follow her on Twitter @GlennishaMorgan.