Eminem’s brother Nathan “Nate” Mathers shared a candid response to his mother Debbie Nelson’s death at the age of 69, admitting he had “mixed emotions” over her passing.
Nathan Mathers isn’t mincing his words.
The younger brother of Eminem—real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III—shared his honest reaction to the passing of their mother, Debbie Nelson, who died on Dec. 2 at the age of 69 following a battle with lung cancer.
Over a black screen, Nathan—who goes by Nate—simply captioned his Dec. 3 Instagram Story, “Hatred and mixed emotions today.”
Debbie had Nate, a music producer in his own right, with boyfriend Fred Samra when Eminem—whose father was Marshall Mathers Jr.—was 13 years old.
Over the years, Eminem has been candid about his tumultuous upbringing, including being abandoned by his father when he was just a baby, and his efforts to gain custody of his brother after Nate was put into foster care at the age of 8.
“When he was taken away I always said if I ever get in a position to take him, I would take him,” the rapper told Rolling Stone in 2004. “I tried to apply for full custody when I was 20, but I didn’t have the means.”
He continued, “I cried just going to see him at the foster home. The day he was taken away, I was the only one allowed to see him. They had come and got him out of school. He didn’t know what the f–k was going on. The same thing that had happened in my life was happening in his.”
Eminem was eventually declared his brother’s legal guardian when Nate was 16. As the Grammy winner, who was around 29 when he got custody of Nate, explained to Rolling Stone, “It was like, ‘Man, if I get in position, I’m gonna stop all this s–t.’ And I got in position and did.”
Instagram/Nathan Mathers
Eminem’s efforts to become Nate’s guardian occurred amid a particularly strained time with his mother, who had him at the age of 16.
The “Till I Collapse” artist had publicly accused his mother of abuse over the years, including in his 2002 track “Cleanin’ Out My Closet.”
“Now, I would never diss my own mama just to get recognition,” he raps in the single. “Take a second to listen ‘fore you think this record is dissin’ / But put yourself in my position, just try to envision / Witnessin’ your mama poppin’ prescription pills in the kitchen.”
For her part, Debbie denied his accusations and had previously sued her son for $11 million in 1999 over his song “My Name Is,” however she ultimately settled out of court for $25,000 according to the BBC.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic & Mark Weiss/Getty Images
As she wrote in her 2007 biography, My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem, “What mother wants to be known as a pill-popping alcoholic who lives on welfare? None of it was true, but the fibs kept getting bigger, and ultimately Marshall and I became estranged.”
And in the years since, Eminem has expressed how his perception of his mother changed as he grew older.
“At the end of the day, she’s my mother and I love her, because she’s mother,” he said during a 2009 appearance on BET’s 106 & Park. “I mean, even though we don’t really speak, she is my mother. I do love her and I think I got a better understanding of what she was going through or what she may be going through, now that I see myself and how I actually became. I think that’s there a little compassion factor that goes with that.”
For his part, Nate—who shares three kids, daughter Audrianna and sons Liam and Carter, with wife Ashley Mae Mathers—has been candid over the years about his love for his brother.
“He was the best role model I could have had,” he told his niece Hailie Jade on her podcast Just a Little Shady in February 2023 of Eminem, adding, “to help me be the dad that I am today.”
For more on Eminem’s family tree, keep reading.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Kim Mathers
Born Kimberly Ann Scott, the Michigan native was Eminem’s high school sweetheart. She welcomed their daughter Hailie Jade in 1995.
Kim was married to the rapper from 1999 to 2001, and briefly again in 2006. Their tumultuous relationship has been referenced in several of Eminem’s songs, including “’97 Bonnie & Clyde,” “Puke” and “Bad Husband.”
“In our relationship, there’s a pattern,” Kim said of their on-and-off romance in a 2007 interview with 20/20. ” We’ll have two good years and then it will go bad for some reason. It’s like a two-year max with us and we hadn’t reached the two years yet. I just didn’t want to rush into anything before the two years.”
However, Kim noted that Eminem has always been an “excellent” father.
“He loves the kids very much,” she shared. “He’s always lending a helping hand.”
Instagram
Hailie Jade Scott
Eminem and Kim welcomed Hailie on Dec. 25, 1995. According to music star, her birth was a “real wake-up call” to “get my a– in gear.”
“Everything that I am doing right now is for Hailie,” he told Q magazine in 2001. “The money—it’s for her college.”
She spent most of her youth under Eminem’s 15,000-square-foot roof in the Detroit suburbs, before attending Michigan State University to study psychology. There, she met her now-husband Evan McClintock, who she married in May 2024 after getting engaged the year prior.
“She’s doing good,” Eminem said of Hailie during a 2020 episode of Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson, adding that the influencer—who now goes by Hailie Jade—graduated from college with a 3.9 GPA. “She’s made me proud for sure.”
In October 2024, Hailie announced her pregnancy with her and Evan’s first child, a baby boy.
Instagram
Alaina Marie Scott
Born on Feb. 22, 1993, Alaina is the daughter of Kim’s sister Dawn Scott.
She was adopted by Eminem in the early aughts due to her mother’s struggles with addiction. “I have full custody of my niece and joint custody of Hailie,” the 8 Mile star told Rolling Stone in 2004. “I was always there for Hailie, and my niece has been a part of my life ever since she was born. Me and Kim pretty much had her, she’d live with us wherever we was at.”
Having been largely raised by Eminem, the Oakland University alum calls him “dad” and had him accompany her down the aisle when she wed Matt Moeller in June 2023.
“He wasn’t going to miss that,” she told People after the nuptials, during which Hailie served as a Maid of Honor. “None of this would have been possible without my dad. I’m beyond blessed.”
Her mother passed away in 2016 at the age of 41.
Insider
Entrepreneurs Eye Health Sector As Asia Pacific’s Next Big Trend
Tips and Tricks
Plant Banana Peels All Over Your Garden, Look What Happens A Week Later
Insider
Health And Wellness: Asia Pacific’s New Entrepreneurial Frontier
Insider
Health And Wellness: Asia Pacific’s New Entrepreneurial Frontier
Insider
Entrepreneurs Eye Health Sector As Asia Pacific’s Next Big Trend
Instagram
Stevie Laine Scott
Kim welcomed Stevie on April 16, 2002, with her then-boyfriend Eric Hartter. Eminem legally adopted Stevie in 2005, when he reconciled with Kim.
Stevie came out as nonbinary in August 2021, sharing in a TikTok video that they identify using “all pronouns.”
They added in the caption, “forever growing and changing.”
Mark Weiss/Getty Images
Debbie Nelson
Born in 1955 at a military base in Kansas, Debbie is the mother of Eminem.
She married the “Without Me” artist’s father Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. when she was 15, according to her 2008 memoir My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem. She became pregnant with Eminem 16 months later and relocated to Michigan, where her maternal grandmother lived.
Debbie and Eminem’s strained relationship has been documented in several of his songs, including his 2002 smash hit “Cleanin’ Out My Closet.” In the track, he alleged that Debbie abused prescription pills when he was young—which she denied in her autobiography.
“What mother wants to be known as a pill-popping alcoholic who lives on welfare?” she wrote. “None of it was true, but the fibs kept getting bigger, and ultimately Marshall and I became estranged.”
However, Eminem has since expressed regret in airing out his family drama. In his 2013 song “Headlights,” he rapped, “I went in headfirst, never thinking about who, what I said hurt / In what verse, my mom probably got it the worst.”
Nelson died at the age of 69 in 2024 following a battle with cancer.
