Kelly Rowland opens up about tough childhood

Born Kelendria Trene Kamasia, the 30-year-old singer and her mum Doris fled the family home in Atlanta when she was just seven to get away from her alcoholic father, Christopher.

“I remember him being drunk and aggressive towards my mum, but not me,” she told Now magazine.

“It took courage for her to get away.”

Doris worked several jobs to support them in their new home in Houston until Kelly met her future Destiny’s Child bandmate Beyoncé at an audition for local rap and dance group Girl’s Tyme.

Three years later, Doris agreed that it would be best for Kelly to live with Beyoncé’s parents Matthew and Tina, who became Kelly’s legal guardians.

“It was real difficult for my mum to get me to rehearsals and it was easier for me to live with the Knowleses,” she explained.

But in an open letter to Doris her on Mother’s Day in 2008, she said that it was her mother’s selfless attitude that helped her achieve so much.

“You came by every day and cooked dinner – we’d all eat as a family,” she wrote. “It was because of your strength and sacrifice that I was able to dream so big.”