Gloria Estefan Told Daughter: Grandma’s ‘Blood’ Would Be On Her ‘Hands’ If She Came Out
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Gloria Estefan’s daughter, Emily, burst into tears on ‘Red Table Talk: The Estefans’ as she recalled her mom’s reaction when she came out to her parents.
Emily Estefan, 25, claims that her mom Gloria warned her that she could cause her ailing grandma’s death if she came out.
The singer made the stunning revelation during the Oct. 14 episode of the family’s Facebook Watch show, Red Table Talk: The Estefans.
Before Emily and her 63-year-old mom even took to the table to discuss her sexuality with her cousin, actress Lili Estefan, Emily admitted that they’d gone to therapy to “prepare” for the show.
Mother and daughter then recalled Emily’s coming out story, which occurred four years ago when, according to Gloria, the then 21-year-old asked her parents during a car ride, “Guys, do you think that I might be gay?”
Emily, who admitted she was “testing the waters” because she was “afraid” of her parents’ reaction, then broke down and cried as she recalled her famous mom’s response.
“I was like, ‘Hey, I’m in love with this girl,’” she said. “The first thing you said was, ‘If you tell your grandma and she dies, her blood is on your hands.’ I just wasn’t ready for that, because I understand my grandmother was old, but I already felt like, OK whatever it is hide it, it’s not OK. So that’s where my hurt started. I’m never going to forget that.”
At the time that Emily came out, Gloria’s mother (who was also called Gloria and is featured in the video above) was still alive and suffering from ulcerative colitis. She eventually died in June 2017 at the age of 88, never knowing that her granddaughter was gay.
During the episode Gloria pushed back, saying that Emily is “remembering things, as we all tend to do, in a different way.” “I was trying to protect both my ailing mother from any shock that could affect her health,” she said of her conservative mother, “and Emily from anything that could harm their relationship.”
“What I told you was, ‘When you’re going to tell your grandma, why don’t you first introduce her to your girlfriend or your friend, have her get to know her a little because Abuela [Grandma] has ulcerative colitis, an emotional disease,” Gloria added. “She almost died in 2007. Every time she would get upset it was like, uh-oh.”
Defending her response, Gloria said she thought her daughter was the “biggest bad ass.” The “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” hitmaker also indicated that her comment was sparked by anger. “The day I said that to you by the way, you had taken me to the bitter end,” she told Emily. “You know I’m a patient human being, but you weren’t hearing me but I was trying to talk to you.”
Emily – who admitted she was “suicidal” at the time – is now happily in a relationship with Gemeny Hernandez, the woman that she realized she was in love with, and began dating, four years. (Her partner is featured in the photo above with the Estefans, including Emilio, Gloria’s husband and Emily’s dad.) On Oct. 11, she celebrated National Coming Out Day by posting a photo of the two of them together on her Instagram page. “Loving you is worth climbing the highest mountain to scream it from,” Emily captioned the pic. “You push me, you pull me in, we make magic.”