by Jeroslyn jovonn
August 18, 2025
Gladys Knight is shutting down her son’s claims of being mentally and financially abused by her husband.
Gladys Knight, 81, is talking up following her son’s claims that she’s a sufferer of elder abuse by the hands of her husband.
In response to the music icon’s son, Shanga Hankerson is being mentally and financially abused by her husband, William McDowell. However, the “Midnight Prepare to Georgia” singer, who’s presently performing stay as a part of The Queens Tour with fellow legends Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, and Stephanie Mills, launched an announcement through her publicist, Laura Herlovich, assuring followers that each one is effectively.
“I’m sorry that my well being and performances have been misrepresented,” Knight instructed Individuals. “I need my followers and people involved to relaxation assured I’m doing very effectively for somebody who has been on stage for 3 quarters of a century, exhausting to imagine, proper? I’m wholesome and completely happy and visiting family and friends these previous couple of months. I’m excited to get again on the highway with my sisters and on stage with The Queens Tour. See you quickly.”
Knight’s assertion got here days after her son criticized her busy touring schedule as “detrimental” to her well being. Whereas Knight hasn’t expressed a want to cease performing, Hankerson claims she is “on cruise management” and pointed to latest alleged reminiscence lapses. This previous New Yr’s, for instance, he claims the legendary vocalist didn’t acknowledge him.
Hankerson additionally spoke with The Shade Room about an incident final 12 months when Knight allegedly wandered away from their lodge and ended up throughout city.
Hankerson is accusing McDowell of letting his mom proceed touring regardless of her alleged well being points.
“I did my finest to provide (McDowell) the area to play the position of husband and do what was in my mother’s finest curiosity, and he has not finished that,” Hankerson mentioned. “Why is she working? Why is she on this state of affairs the place she’s being made to imagine that she has to work like this? That’s actually my problem with it.”
However Knight’s publicist, Laura Herlovich, mentioned Knight and her workforce are “drastically saddened by Shanga’s unfounded allegations,” and that he “has had no substantial contact together with her.” In consequence, the Rock & Roll Corridor of Famer plans to take “any and all authorized cures as a consequence of Shanga’s defamatory feedback,” Herlovich mentioned.
Hankerson stays adamant that Knight’s “deterioration has occurred over a interval of years, and may be very evident.” He’s open to taking authorized motion in opposition to McDowell, whom Knight has been married to since 2001, saying he’s “combating to verify I can actually handle” the singer.
He mentioned the rationale he hasn’t seen or spoken to his mom is as a result of he has been “purposefully saved able of getting minimal entry” to her. “This has nothing to do with cash for me,” Hankerson mentioned. “I’m attempting to get her to cease working.”
Gladys Knight rose to fame within the Sixties and ’70s because the lead singer of Gladys Knight & the Pips, performing together with her brother and two cousins. She later loved a profitable solo profession, successful three of her seven Grammy Awards as a solo artist.
Hankerson is Knight’s solely baby with ex-husband and report producer Barry Hankerson, whom she was marriedto from 1974 to 1979. She additionally has two different sons, James III and Kenya, together with her first husband, James Newman (1960–1973). Knight was married to former Ohio consultant Les Brown from 1995 to 1997 earlier than marrying McDowell in 2001.
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