When her daughter Emily told her she was gay, Gloria Estefan wasn’t shocked. But she was very surprised when Emily told her that she didn’t feel comfortable telling her the news.
In a new interview with the Sunday Times, the singer and Father of the Bride star, 65, talked about how her 27-year-old daughter was reluctant to talk to her when she first came out five years ago.
Gloria said of her daughter, who is also a musician, “I was a little surprised that she didn’t feel comfortable enough to say what she was feeling right away.” “But, like me, she is a private person, so I got that. She had a lot of worry.”
Gloria said that she and Emily have gone to therapy together to improve their relationship.
“Sometimes all you need is an objective ear from someone who doesn’t care about your pain,” she said. “Emily and I found it very helpful to have someone else there while we talked about things and pointed out things. It was good for you.”
But it was harder to tell Emily’s grandmother, who was sick at the time, what had happened. Gloria wanted Emily to introduce her partner, Gemeny Hernandez, to her grandmother before she died, but Emily saw that as an attempt to stop her from talking about her sexuality at all.
“I told her, ‘Do it slowly so you don’t scare her. The last thing I want is for something to happen to her, which is going to happen anyway, and for you to feel like her blood is on your hands for the rest of your life “Gloria said. Emily, on the other hand, took this as a rejection and was hurt by what her mother said.
“Em remembers things in a totally different way, and I can see why, because she was so raw at the time,” said Gloria.
Later, the mother and daughter shared their story with the public by doing a podcast episode. Of course, it wasn’t easy to get to that point. In 2020, when both women were on an episode of Red Table Talk: The Estefans, they talked about Emily’s first attempt to tell her parents she was gay.
“We were in the car, and you kind of leaned over and asked your dad and me, ‘Guys, do you think I might be gay?'” Gloria recalled.
Emily remembered what her mother replied.
Emily said, “You said, ‘Only you can know that.'” “But when I asked you that question, I was afraid and just testing the waters. I was talking to myself in my head to try to figure out who I was. What’s going on? How do I fit in? I was learning that I liked women better than men.”
Emily said that her tense relationship with Gloria made her feel like “something was wrong with her.” This made her think about killing herself. She said, “The things I was going through at the time were so bad that I couldn’t see anything but pain.”
