Discover Eminem and Daughter Hailie Jade’s Full Family Lineage
Born in 1955 at a military base in Kansas, Debbie is the mother of Eminem.
She married the “Without Me” artist’s father Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. when she was 15, according to her 2008 memoir My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem. She became pregnant with Eminem 16 months later and relocated to Michigan, where her maternal grandmother lived.
Debbie and Eminem’s strained relationship has been detailed in several of his songs, including the 2002 hit “Cleanin’ Out My Closet.” He claimed in the track that Debbie abused prescription pills when he was young, a claim she refuted in her autobiography.
“Who wants to be known as a pill-popping alcoholic mother surviving on welfare?” she wrote. “None of it was true, but the lies grew, leading to an estrangement between Marshall and me.”
Despite their past conflicts, Eminem has since expressed remorse for bringing their family issues into the public eye. In his 2013 song “Headlights,” he rapped, “I dove in headfirst, without considering who, what I said hurt / In which verse, my mother probably endured the most.”