Singer Jewel opened up about the horror moment she found out that “all of her money” was missing.
The four-time Grammy nominee said her mother Lenedra, who was also her manager, stole an eye-watering $100 million from her throughout her musical career.
“I didn’t really realize what my mom was until I was 30-something. I woke up and realized she embezzled all of my money, over $100 million,” Jewel said Monday on the “Verywell Mind Podcast” with Amy Morin.
Jewel has sold more than 27 million albums worldwide.
“Thirty-four years old, realize I’m $3 million in debt, realize my mom stole it, realize everything I thought my mom was, isn’t what she was, very difficult psychological thing to come to terms with.”
The four-time Grammy nominee said her mother stole $100 million from her.Getty Images for The Wellness ExJewel, now 48, said her perception of reality was warped and based on a lie when she was growing up.
“My mom and dad got divorced when I was 8, and we went to live with my dad,” she recalled.
“Nobody told me it’s because my mom didn’t want to be a mom. She left us, and so my dad took over raising us. I didn’t know that at the time.”
The “Who Will Save Your Soul” hitmaker also claimed her father was abusive.
Jewel said her mother’s “embezzling” landed her in debt.Instagram/@jewel“My dad was this volatile alcoholic that hit me, very easy to identify ‘bad guy.’ My mom seemed like the opposite,” she explained.
“She was calm, she was soft, she never yelled, obviously never hit me. And I didn’t realize I was being abused in another way at the time.”
And when she would seek support from her mother, Jewel says her concerns would often fall on deaf ears.
“Let’s say when I would show up on her doorstep, she would say, ‘Your mind is so powerful. Our minds are only tap, we use like 10% of our brain power. Our minds are so powerful and I think you, Jewel, are so powerful that I think you could sit here and stare at this light bulb and you might be able to get it to turn off with your mind.'”
The singer has detailed her troubled childhood, saying she was abused by her father.John Atashian/Getty ImagesIn hindsight, Jewel recalls “feeling loved” at the time.
It wasn’t until later that she discovered, “What it actually was was my mom didn’t want to stay there and be with me, and she babysat me by having me watch light bulbs. So sometimes the appearance of an attached figure isn’t what it seems.”
The singer, born Jewel Kilcher, previously opened up about her childhood in her 2016 memoir, “Never Broken.”
“My mom isn’t a villain,” she said at the time. “My dad isn’t a villain. People get some things right and people get some things wrong.”
Jewel became a household name following the release of her 1995 debut album, “Pieces of You.”
The project, who houses hit songs like “Who Will Save Your Soul, “Near You Always,” and “You Were Meant For Me,” went on to become a 12-time platinum record.
