Why did Eminem disown his biological father?
In 1970, 22-year-old Bruce Mathers Jr. married Deborah R. Nelson when she was not yet sixteen. Two years later, they had a son together and named him Marshall Bruce Mathers III – whom we still call by his familiar stage name: Eminem.
Perhaps because they came together at such a young age, along with irreconcilable disagreements in their married life, the two broke up not long after. Em and her mother Debbie struggled to find a way to make a living in Detroit; And Bruce’s father moved to California, where he continued to have two more children…
Eminem (the baby) and his father
In a rare moment of sharing about his family with the media, Eminem revealed that back then, Mr. Bruce would occasionally call to ask about how he and his mother were doing, but he never once asked Debbie to bring the phone closer so he could talk to or even hear the voice of his little son. Despite this, as he grew older, Em still tried writing a letter to Bruce in the hope of mending their father-son relationship, or at least to check on his health… but in return, all he got was silence, with the envelopes stamped “Return to Sender” and no reply.
It wasn’t until 2001, when Slim Shady’s name became globally famous with the massive success of his first two albums, that his father Bruce finally showed up and began making moves to reconnect. In a letter published in *The Mirror*, he explained that the reason for his distance was due to his wife Debbie, who always tried to keep them apart by moving around frequently with Eminem, never staying in one place.
However, it was already too late. Completely unmoved by Bruce’s public words of love and reconciliation, Em harshly cut ties with the father who abandoned him as a child and ignored him even as an adult, through vicious bars in his track filled with rage, “Cleanin’ Out My Closet,” released the following year:
“Cause he split, I wonder if he even kissed me goodbye
No, I don’t, on second thought, I just fuckin’ wished he would die”
Listen to “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” here:
