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Jennifer Hudson has always had a big fan base — but it turns out her home base is pretty stacked, too.
The eponymous talk show host, 42, opened up about her family on a recent episode of the aptly titled Your Mama’s Kitchen: Conversations From the Heart of the Home podcast, revealing to host Michele Norris that her dad fathered 27 children — and she’s the youngest of them all.
Recalling the story of how Hudson discovered she had so many brothers and sisters, Norris asked: “You went with your siblings and went and found [your father] at some point and found that you had a lot more siblings?”
“Yes, a lot of us,” the American Idol alum responded.
“Apparently he had 27 children,” she shared, later adding: “That’s what we were always told. We’ve found 11 girls and 17 boys … something like that.”
When she went searching for her other siblings as a teen, Hudson recalled that her “dream” at the time was “to have all of us at this grand Thanksgiving or Christmas table, and we all sit and eat together.”
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While she noted she hasn’t met all of her siblings yet, the family reunions began after the revelation — a dream that eventually came true for the EGOT winner. “When my grandma on [my dad’s] side passed, my siblings over there were like, ‘Y’all got a sister that can really sing, you should meet her,'” she told Norris. “And eventually we all came together.”
Devastatingly, Hudson — who shares 14-year-old son David with ex David Otunga — has also dealt with immense tragedy in her family life.
After growing up with brother Jason and sister Julia — whom her mother shared with her father, Samuel Simpson — Julia’s husband, William Balfour, committed a triple homicide in 2008: murdering Hudson’s mom, Darnell Donerson, her brother, Jason, and Julia’s son, Julian, who was 7 years old.
One year later, in 2008, Hudson welcomed her son David — who became her saving grace amidst the horrors inflicted upon her family.
“I went from being an aunt, having a mom, and being a…
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