Eminem’s biological father, Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr., for example, died of a heart attack at the age of 67, according to TMZ. Although the news of his death shares an inevitable link with the rapper, the relationship between the two was non-existent, if not toxic.
Most of us met Bruce Mathers through his son’s lyrics, which tell of how he abandoned him and his mother. Eminem, whose given name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, has spent much of his career rapping about the problems he has faced in real life. Throughout his life, he has channeled the resentment he felt towards his father through music.
Big hits like ‘My Name Is’ and ‘Cleanin’ Out My Closet’ reflect those sentiments. In fact, in the first song he says “And by the way when you see my dad? Tell him that I slit his throat, in this dream I had”; something like “by the way, when will you see my dad? Tell him I cut his throat in that dream I had.”
Eminem’s mother was 17 and Bruce was 24 when Eminem was born and Bruce is said to have left them soon after. The rapper and his mother settled in Detroit, but Bruce moved to California and had two other children.
There is a lot of controversy about whether Bruce tried to regain contact with his son or not. In certain interviews, Eminem said that he had written letters to him as a child, but that they were always returned marked “return to sender”. Apparently Bruce had called occasionally, but had never spoken to him on the phone.
A year after Eminem’s hit album ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ was released, Bruce published a letter to his son in a newspaper claiming that his mother had kept them apart.
Despite his claims, it seems that Eminem decided to keep his distance from his father. This decision had to do, in part, with the fact that he himself has been a father.
Click through this gallery to see which other stars have cut ties with their children, parents, or other family members.