What to Know About Jennifer Hudson’s Family, Including How She Honors Her Late Mom and Brother

Jennifer Hudson's mom, Darnell Donerson, and brother, Jason Hudson, were tragically murdered in 2008

Jennifer Hudson has found ways to continue honoring her late mother and brother since their murders in 2008.

The “If This Isn’t Love” singer was born to her mom, Darnell Donerson, and dad, Samuel Simpson, in September 1981 as the youngest of 26 siblings. Darnell and Samuel shared three children together: Julia, Jason and Jennifer. Before his relationship with Darnell, Samuel welcomed 24 other children.

Jennifer was primarily raised by her mom, as her father was estranged from the family for most of her life. However, when she was 15 years old, she decided to look for him, she told The Guardian in November 2019, and the two reunited, leading Jennifer to find out she had dozens more siblings.

“Eleven girls, 16 boys. I’m the youngest, or at least in the last two or three,” she told the outlet. “And it was always my dream – because I love family – to have a giant table with all my siblings. Just imagine the giant table! So when I turned 15, we went to go look for our dad, me and my sister.”

Related: Jennifer Hudson's Son: Everything She's Said About Parenting

In 2008, Jennifer’s brother, Jason, and her mother, Darnell, were murdered by her sister Julia’s estranged husband, William Balfour. Balfour also killed Julia’s 7-year-old son, Julian King. Jennifer served as a witness in Balfour’s trial, where he was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to three life sentences for the three murders.

Here’s everything to know about Jennifer Hudson’s family and how she continues to build her sibling bonds while honoring her late mother and brother.

She and two of her siblings were raised by her mother

Jennifer, her older brother Jason and her older sister Julia were raised by Darnell in Chicago, though Darnell and Samuel were from Mississippi, she told The Guardian.

Growing up, Darnell was supportive of her children’s endeavors, encouraging them to pursue their passions.

“She used to tell us: ‘No matter what you put your mind to, you can do,’ ” Jennifer said. “She said: ‘I think you can act.’ Or, ‘Jenny, I think you can draw.’ I’m like, ‘Whatever, Momma.’ ”

Jennifer reunited with her father when she was a teenager

When she turned 15, Jennifer decided to seek out her father, who was absent from her life, with her mother’s support, she told The Guardian.

“She said, ‘If you want to, go ahead.’ Once we found him, he moved in with us and never left us until he died,” she said. “His name was Sam. He was supposed to drive me to college, but he passed before he could. That was when I was 16.’ ”

Samuel was a Greyhound bus driver before his death in 1999.

She found out she had dozens more siblings after she reunited with her dad

Upon reuniting with her father, Jennifer found out that in addition to Julia and Jason, whom he shared with her mother, Samuel also had 24 other kids. After her discovery, Jennifer started trying to reunite with them.

“Not all. But quite a few,” she told The Guardian of whether she’d met them all. “I’m trying to count. One of my brothers – half-brothers – passed recently, or was it two of them? My sister Dinah’s around, she was just fussing that she didn’t get to see Patti LaBelle. I said, Dinah, I didn’t know you loved Patti. And they got me Macavity [the cat] for my birthday.”

In June 2024, Jennifer shared on the Your Mama’s Kitchen: Conversations from the Heart of the Home podcast that she had a wish to gather all her siblings around a table and celebrate the holidays together.

“It was my dream to have all of us at this grand Thanksgiving or Christmas table, and we all sit and eat together — that was my goal at 16,” she explained.

Since finding out about them, Jennifer said she’s met six or seven of her siblings, in addition to the two she grew up with, with the help of her father’s side of the family.

“When my grandma on his side passed, my siblings over there were like, ‘Y’all got a sister that can really sing, you should meet her,’ ” she revealed. “And eventually we all came together.”

Her mother and brother were killed in 2008

In October 2008, Julia’s estranged husband William Balfour murdered Jason, Darnell and Julia’s son Julian in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.

“I went from being an aunt, having a mom, and being a child to not having a mom, becoming a mom, and raising my own child,” she told Glamour in October 2015.

Jennifer told The Guardian in 2019 that she has continued work past her trauma, in an effort to honor what her mom and brother would have wanted for her.

“It would be worse, to me, not to press forward,” she said. “I’m hearing my brother’s voice say, ‘Jenny, knock it off!’ He would be angry at me for giving up. Or all the things that my mother instilled in us. She prepared us.”

Jennifer continues to honor her mother and brother

Since their deaths, Jennifer has continued to honor her family. She set up the Julian D. King Gift Foundation which supports underprivileged children in honor of her nephew, whose birthday she continues to celebrate.

Jennifer also often posts tributes to her mother and brother, even participating in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game in honor of her brother in January 2024.

“His birthday was February 17th and he was big on basketball too,” Jennifer said on her eponymous show ahead of the game. “So that makes me a huge basketball fan and in honor of him I always make a point to celebrate his birthday that way.”

As for her mother, Jennifer honors her memory by continuing to push through the pain of her loss and living her life.

“She would say, ‘You know, I’m not always going to be here and I want you all to be able to make it,’ ” she told The Guardian. “She used to say, without family, you have nothing, which is why it’s so important to take care of family. So if I’m doing that, I know I’m pleasing my mother.”

Jennifer encourages her son to have a strong bond with his cousins

The Cats actress is a mother to one son, David Daniel Otunga Jr., and has been open about wanting him to grow up around family, including his many cousins.

“I love to try to make sure he has the closest thing to him... just making sure he has his cousins circle and that base and foundation,” she shared on the Your Mama’s Kitchen podcast. “That's part of why I had moved back to Chicago, because I wanted him to have the surroundings of his family around him growing up."

Jennifer continued, “Now we're here in L.A…And then he has cousins that come in and out. One of them is here right now. And so to keep that family burning... So he has that same upbringing or going to see the loved ones I talked to."

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