Actress Jennifer Hudson grew up with two siblings. Years later, she found out she has 27.

It's hard to think of another actor who has had more of a multifarious trajectory through life than Jennifer Hudson.

She's the American Idol contestant who parlayed her reality TV beginnings into a full-blown Hollywood acting career, which saw her win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2007.

While her professional life has gone from strength to strength, her personal life has played out alongside some tragic circumstances. Just this week she revealed a shock development about her father.

In an interview on the Your Mama’s Kitchen: Conversations from the Heart of the Home podcast, the 42-year-old revealed that he had a grand total of 27 children. 

The admission, which host Michelle Norris was taken aback by, was followed by a deeper unravelling of her life. It's safe to say that it has been more complex and tumultuous than you could imagine.

How many siblings does Jennifer Hudson have?

Image: Getty

Growing up Hudson always believed she had just two siblings—Jason and Julia. Born and raised in Chicago, a young Hudson was raised by her mother but by the time she hit her early teens she became curious about her father, Samuel Simpson's whereabouts.

When she started to dig a little deeper she found out that Simpson had lived quite the life and had fathered 27 children including herself, her siblings Jason and Julia as well as 24 half-siblings.

"Your father had a big personality. And you went with your siblings and went and found him at some point and found that you had a lot more siblings?" Michelle Norris quizzed on the podcast.

"Yes, a lot of us. Apparently he had 27 children," responded Hudson.

After learning about her rather large family, Hudson became obsessed with finding all of her siblings and bringing them together.

"It was my dream to have all of us at this grand Thanksgiving or Christmas table, and we all sit and eat together — that was my goal at 16," she said.

This drive led her to find many of her siblings over the years.

"We found quite a few of us," she said before revealing that she is "the youngest of all of them."

Given the tragic event that unfolded years later, discovering she had more siblings than she first thought has been a blessing in disguise for Hudson.

What happened to Jennifer Hudson's family?

Jennifer Hudson was always the perfect choice to play legendary singer Aretha Franklin in the biopic Respect. 

It’s not just her voice. It’s the way she connects with Aretha’s heartbreak.  

"As an actor, you have to go to your own real places," Jennifer told InStyle. "I don't think I would have been able to dig that deep or connect in a way, had I not been through things myself."

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Those things that Jennifer has been through are the murders of her mum, brother and nephew, on one terrible day in 2008. 

She’s been able to forgive the man who killed her family and stay focused on her career, because she knows that’s what her mum and brother would have wanted. 

Jennifer grew up in a churchgoing family in Chicago and from the age of seven, singing was all she wanted to do. 

"I’d ask for solos in church and they’d give me the runaround," she told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2006. 

"I remember sitting in the bathroom of my house at seven years old, crying and saying, ‘Nobody will listen to me, so I’ll listen to myself sing'."

By the time she tried out for American Idol in 2004, singing an Aretha Franklin song, Jennifer had a job as a cruise ship singer. But despite her powerhouse voice, she didn’t win Idol that year. 

She was controversially eliminated in seventh place, after ending up in the bottom three with Fantasia Barrino and La Toya London. Elton John declared the voting to be "incredibly racist".

That could have been the last anyone heard of Jennifer Hudson. But she still believed in herself. 

"I didn’t know how or when, but I knew there was going to be something huge," she told the Sun-Times. "In any audition I walk in, before Idol and after Idol, regardless of what happens, I know I’m walking away with my gift and nobody has that but me."

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The year after Idol, the casting agency for the movie version of the musical Dreamgirls came knocking. 

They asked Jennifer to audition for the role of Effie White, who sings the show-stopper "And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going". Up against almost 800 other women, including Idol winner Fantasia, Jennifer got the part. 

It was her first movie role. She beat out Cate Blanchett to the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, posing afterwards with her widowed mum, who she’d brought to the ceremony with her.    

"I didn’t think I was going to win," she said. "But wow."

Suddenly, everyone was talking about Jennifer Hudson. She filmed a role in the Sex And The City movie. She recorded her self-titled debut album. She got engaged to David Otunga, a professional wrestler and lawyer. 

Then her life was ripped apart by William Balfour.

Balfour, had gone to the same primary school as the three Hudson siblings, grew up with a criminal dad, and started getting into trouble with the police from the age of 14. 

His long list of offences included carjacking, drug dealing and attempted murder.   

In 2006, Balfour was out on parole when he reconnected with Jennifer’s sister Julia, a single mum who drove a school bus for a living. They got married, and Balfour became a self-described "proud parent" to Julia’s young son from a previous relationship, Julian King. 

Image: Getty

Jennifer never liked Balfour. 

"None of us wanted her to marry him," she later said in court. "We did not like how he treated her."

After a year of marriage, Julia wanted out. Balfour was told to leave the family home, where Julia lived with her mum Darnell and her brother Jason. 

He threatened Julia, saying, "If you leave me, you will be the last to die. I'll kill your family first."

On October 24, 2008, the day after Julia’s birthday, Balfour drove past the house and saw some balloons, which he was convinced had been given to her by her new boyfriend. 

Julia left for work. Balfour went into the house. He shot dead Darnell and Jason. Then he drove off with seven-year-old Julian in Jason’s car. 

Julia came home to find her mother dead. As she rang 911, she was hit by the thought that something might have happened to her brother. Then came the horrible realisation that her son was missing. 

For three days, no one knew what had happened to Julian. 

Jennifer posted a photo of him and a message on her MySpace page: "Please keep praying for our family and that we get Julian King back home safely."

Three days later, Jason’s car was found. Julian’s body was inside. He’d been shot twice in the back of the head.

Balfour was taken into custody and was charged with all three murders. He pleaded his innocence, but was given three life sentences.  

"You have the heart of an arctic night," judge Charles Burns told him. "Your soul is as barren as dark space."

Jennifer took a few months’ break, then picked up her career where she’d left off. She won a Grammy for her debut album. Less than a year after the murders she gave birth to a son, David Otunga Jr.

Jennifer with her mother Darnell. Image: Getty

She told Glamour that having a child was the best therapy. 

"I went from being an aunt, having a mum and being a child to not having a mum, becoming a mum and raising my own child," she said. “I tell David all the time, 'You saved my life'." 

In 2012, Jennifer and Julia spoke to Oprah Winfrey. Jennifer revealed that she’d forgiven Balfour for the killings, and didn’t even hold him fully responsible for what he’d done.  

"For the most part, it's not his fault," she said. "It's what he was taught, how he was brought up." 

She said Balfour "never had a chance".

"Had you had the love my mother gave us, or the background that some have, then you would've stood a chance."

In 2019, as her new movie Cats was about to come out, Jennifer told The Guardian she realised early on in the grieving process that she had to honour her mother and brother by moving on with her life. 

"I’m hearing my brother’s voice say, ‘Jenny, knock it off!’ He would be angry at me for giving up. Or all the things that my mother instilled in us. She prepared us. She would say, ‘You know, I’m not always going to be here, and I want you all to be able to make it.'" 

Who is Jennifer Hudson married to?

Amid Hudson's family turmoil she was still able to find joy when she became engaged to retired wrestler David Ortunga in 2008. A year later they welcomed their little boy David Jr in 2009.

Despite making plans to tie the knot, Hudson continued to open up about her reservations about marriage.

"We will get married one day, but again, my thing is once I get married, I don’t believe in divorce," she told Wendy Williams in 2014. "So when I get married, it’s for good. We want to be completely sure we’re together, we’re happy."

However, in 2017 that relationship broke down when the couple announced they were separating. Unfortunately it seems things had soured with Hudson's spokesperson telling PEOPLE that she was taking legal actions to protect her son.

"Today, Jennifer requested and received a protective order against her ex-fiancé. Jennifer's actions are solely taken in the best interest of their son," her rep said at the time.

In 2019 after a lengthy court battle the pair finally reached a custody agreement over child support and visitation pertaining to their son, David Jr.

Common and Jennifer Hudson in 2024. Image: Getty.

After the breakdown of her relationship with Ortunga, Hudson has now happily found love again with rapper-slash-actor Common. They confirmed their relationship earlier this year when he appeared as a guest on her talk show The Jennifer Hudson Show.

He cheekily revealed he was dating "one of the most beautiful people I've ever met in life."

After all the devastation and heartbreak in her life, we're so happy to see Hudson at peace and thriving.

Feature Image: Getty.

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