James Brown’s daughters share father's dark side and reason behind forgiving him for abusing their mother
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The daughters of James Brown, whom he had with his second wife Deidre Jenkins, have opened up about their childhood with their famous father, who reportedly was not a good husband.
Yamma Brown told PEOPLE Magazine, “When you see a family member being hurt, you're not feeling the best about the person that's hurting them. I was flat-out upset, mad with my dad at that moment.”
Yamma Brown shares the dark side of James Brown
She continued, “I still go back to that place every now and then, not to belittle my dad, but flashing back over my own life and the domestic violence situation in my life, thinking how much of that shaped me.”
The 52-year-old singer also spoke about it in the new documentary, ‘James Brown: Say It Loud,’ where it has reportedly been shown that the 'People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul' singer himself was a victim of abuse during his growing years.
She shared, “I remember being 5 or 6 and thinking, 'I just can’t take it anymore.' And you hear about this, where people’s kids stand up to their parent’s abuser before the parent will.”
“What I remember as clear as day, my mom had on a blue and white robe and he literally was screaming and hollering and hitting her and she was crying. I just remember going over there and trying to pull him off of her,” she further explained.
Yamma added, “And the look that he gave me was like, ‘Who is this person?’ But it didn’t even matter to me because in that moment I was just trying to protect my mother.”
She told the publication, "I talk about it in the sense that it happened. It is an unfortunate time in anybody's situation, anybody's life. If they've ever had to go through domestic violence, they know what that's like."
"And it shows that he was human because he was flawed, but it also is a time to show grace," the actress stated.
Deanna Brown Thomas says their father did not hurt them
But her elder sister Deanna asserted that despite being violent, James was not abusive toward her and Yamma.
“There was a time when I didn't like my father. I didn't like him because of this type of behavior. I saw a lot growing up. I heard a lot growing up that could have damaged me for a lifetime,” the 55-year-old mentioned.
James Brown accepted his mistake
She also noted, “He never had any type of rage towards us because we were his children. That was a situation between a husband and a wife. There's different type of love, different type of circumstances.”
Besides, Yamma added, “My dad did apologize to my mom. Not to say that that was something that just erased everything, but also knowing that he had compassion in his heart and my mom was receptive to that.”
