EXCLUSIVE — Jemele Hill Gets ‘Deep’ About Her Mother’s Drug Addiction & The Road To Forgiveness In ‘Uphill’ Memoir: It’s Easier To Forgive People When They’re Accountable

EXCLUSIVE — Jemele Hill Gets ‘Deep’ About Her Mother’s Drug Addiction & The Road To Forgiveness In ‘Uphill’ Memoir: It’s Easier To Forgive People When They’re Accountable

Jemele Hill gets pretty deep in her forthcoming memoir.

During an exclusive interview with the CEO of theJasmineBRAND, Jasmine Brand, the journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter co-anchor shared that she had every intention of getting into the intense aspects of her life in “Uphill” because it was crucial to her life’s story.

Jemele Hill said,

“Some of those things that did shape me are not easy things to discuss. I also know that, especially in our community, there’s an incredible amount of shame over some things.”

Click Here To See The Interview 

She went on to say that though her mother may not necessarily agree with all her perspectives, she understands that her drug addiction is a huge part of her daughter’s life. Jemele Hill continued,

“Look, at this point, my mother already, in her life, has felt very judged and so in her mind, she’s like ‘what’s worse can they say about me that hasn’t been said?'”

As far as how she was able to forgive her mother for the things she did because of her addiction,

“I would say, it’s easier to forgive people when they’re accountable. Even though it took my mother a lot of stops and with her addiction, because her last relapse was in like 2009 or ’10. … I think it was a little after my grandmother had a stroke, and it was very severe, and she died within a few months.”

Hill shared that experience was so traumatic for her own mother because she’s the one who discovered her. And while she doesn’t believe her mother has been able to forgive herself for her addiction battle, she still believes they have a strong relationship.

She continued,

“When my mother went [to her house], she saw her … in just a very horrific condition. And so that sent my mother back into a dark place. But she’s always been honest and forthright about anything. And so, because of that, that transparency [and] accountability, it made it that much easier to forgive herself.”

According to an official description of “Uphill,”

“Beneath the exterior of one of the most recognizable journalists in America was a need—a calling—to break her family’s cycle of intergenerational trauma. Born in the middle of a lively routine Friday night Monopoly game to a teen mother and a heroin-addicted father, Hill constantly adjusted to the harsh realities of not only her own childhood but the inherited generational pain of her mother and grandmother. Her escape was writing.”

Whew, Generational Curses can be tough to break, and @JemeleHill made sure she did everything in her power to break them all!

Catch an ALL NEW #BrutallyHonest with Jasmine Brand featuring special guest #JemeleHill TONIGHT at 9p/6p PT only on FOX SOUL! pic.twitter.com/H5lfwsjQ8a

— FOX SOUL (@foxsoultv) October 31, 2022

Jasmine Brand’s talk show Brutally Honest airs every Monday night on Fox Soul.

What are your thoughts on what Jemele Hill shared? Let us know in the comments!