Maya Rudolph Wants People To Stop Asking Her About Losing Her Mother, ‘Loving You’ Singer Minnie Riperton, As A Child

Maya Rudolph, Minnie Riperton

Maya Rudolph Wants People To Stop Asking Her About Losing Her Mother, ‘Loving You’ Singer Minnie Riperton, As A Child

Some questions are just inappropriate.

With two creative parents, there’s a strong chance that actress and comedian Maya Rudolph was destined for the spotlight. Her father, Richard Rudolph, is a composer and producer. Her mother, Minnie Riperton, was a beloved singer best known for the 1975 hit “Lovin’ You.” Same as other nepo babies, Maya Rudolph is frequently asked about her parents during interviews, specifically speaking, questions about her late mother who was nominated for a Grammy twice for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

Unfortunately, Minnie Riperton died in 1979 at 31 from breast cancer. At the time of her passing, Maya Rudolph was around 6 years old.

In a recent interview, Maya addressed her mother’s death being brought up throughout her career. Sharing how she no longer wants to speak about losing a parent at such a young age, the Saturday Night Live star expressed,

“My whole career, people have always brought up my mom, which is wonderful. But then they also bring up the tragedy of losing my mother when I was little. And they ask me how old I was when she died. The other day, I said, ‘Why the f*ck are we still doing this?’ First of all, if you know me and you know who I am, you already have that information. And the second thing is, who wants to be asked about their childhood trauma every time they talk about their career? I’m 52 years old, and I have survived my childhood trauma.”

Maya Rudolph

She continued,

“I answer the question and then afterwards, I’m like, ‘Why the f*ck did I do that again?’ Maybe this is the day where we just go, like, ‘You can stop asking.’ It just makes a sad story. But we’re talking about great things, yeah, and humans are capable of so much more than one thing. But for whatever reason, people want to really focus on the sadness, and I’m like, ‘I good.’”

And added,

“I am a polite person, and I care about how I treat other people, obviously. And I try not to ruffle feathers. I like to be respectful. But at a certain point, you have to stand up for yourself. It took me a long time to get to feeling more comfortable in this space, but I’m in it now.”

Maya Rudolph

As she noted, Maya has candidly discussed her mom numerous times before. In a 2018 interview she addressed how even as a child, people would make her feel uncomfortable over her mom’s death.

“When I was a kid, and people would come up to me or stare at me because of my mom, I didn’t like it. I really didn’t like it. I used to think, ‘Oh, they’re staring at my hair, because it’s so big and ugly.’ Because I didn’t realize people were just staring at my mother, like, ‘Wow, that’s her daughter!’ I didn’t know; I was a kid. And kids always personalize things.”

Richard Rudolph and Minnie Riperton welcomed their son Marc Rudolph into the world in 1968, 4 years before Maya was born. The love birds stayed together until Minnie Riperton’s untimely death.

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[VIA]