Jennifer Hudson: ‘My son saved my life after my family members were murdered’

Jennifer Hudson has revealed in the November issue of Glamour magazine that her son saved her life after the tragic murders of her mother, brother, and nephew.

In 2008, the 34-year-old singer/actress lost her mother, her brother, and her nephew after her sister’s estranged husband William Balfour shot them in a brutal murder — a topic she rarely talks about now, except in a healing light.

“I went from being an aunt, having a mom, and being a child to not having a mom, becoming a mom, and raising my own child,” she told the magazine. “I tell my son David all the time, ‘You saved my life."

Hudson and her fiancé, David Otunga, welcomed their first child together, David Jr., in August 2009.

The Oscar and Grammy winner further explained that part of the reason why it’s been so difficult to open up about the tragedy is because she can’t quite connect with those who haven’t faced that kind of devastation.

“It’s frustrating as hell to me to have somebody who ain’t lost nothing try to talk to me about it,” she said. “I want to say, ‘Don’t even bother, because you know nothing.’ But you never know how much you can get through until you’re going through it.”

Jennifer said filming Spike Lee's "Chi-raq" movie reminded her of the murders of her mother, brother and nephew seven years ago in Chicago.

In the film, Hudson plays Irene, a woman whose daughter is killed by a stray bullet while they’re walking to school.

“There’s a scene where we’re all holding up boards with [photos of] our slain children on them,” Hudson recalled. “I turned around, and it’s a sea of real women [as extras] holding pictures of children they actually lost. I’m a character holding a picture of a little girl, but in real life I have the same story.”