Jay-Z’s mother Gloria talks coming out to her son: ‘He started tearing’

Jay-Z’s mother Gloria Carter has opened up about the moment she came out to her son, revealing he started to cry.

Carter said the US rapper was overcome with emotion after fearing his mother had led a “horrible life” as a result of keeping her sexuality a secret.

Recalling the moment, she told the D’USSE Friday podcast: “I just finally started telling Jay who I was. Besides your mother, this is the person that I am. This is the life that I live.

“So my son started actually tearing. He’s like, ‘That had to be a horrible life, ma’. I was like, ‘my life was never horrible, it was just different’.”

Jay-Z celebrated his mother’s sexuality in Smile, a track off his latest album, 4:44 in which he sings: “Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian / Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian/ Had to hide in the closet, so she medicate / Society shame and the pain was too much to take.”

Carter said her confession “made him want to do a song,” but admitted she was initially apprehensive.

“The first time I heard the song I was like, eh, I don’t know dude,” she said. “I ain’t feeling that.”

Carter is grandmother to Blue Ivy and twins Rumi and Sir Carter, who Jay-Z has with wife Beyoncé.

She said she only recently came out to her son because “it was something that was never discussed,” – not because she felt “ashamed”.

She finished: “I was never ashamed of me. I’m tired of all the mystery. I’m gonna give it to ‘em. I don’t have to worry about anybody wondering if I’m in the life or not.

“So now maybe you can focus on the phenomenal things I do, so focus on that. Now it’s time for me to be free.”