The most hated woman in Detroit

“You selfish bitch, I hope you fucking burn in hell for this shit ” (Eminem, “Cleaning Out My Closet”)

Is Debbie Mathers one of the most hated women in Detroit? If you ask me, I’d say “pretty much”. A lot of people dislike Debbie because of the picture Marshall is portraying of her in his songs. She pretends that her son had to live up an image and that the content of his songs are just “artistic expression”. She pretends her son to be lying, but she doesn’t want to call him a “fake”…
The facts tend to dement Debbie’s version. So many people, including her ex husbands and boyfriends have testified against her. Even Nathan, her second son described her as “nuts”. One thing is sure: Marshall’s childhood has been more than traumatic and has left deep wounds inside of him.
We may ask: how was Debbie’s own childhood? Can her instable behavior be explained? Maybe yes.
Debbie Nelson is Bob Nelson and Betty Kresin’s first child. She was born in 1955. Appearently, Betty and Bob’s marriage just didn’t work out. Betty Kresin pretends that her ex husband was verbally abusive. She left him:

“I hate to say it, but Debbie had a very hard life. I left Mr. Nelson, married on the rebound and had two more children.”

About the way she raised Marshall, Betty says :

« She done the best she could do. Sometimes we get in a pattern and her husband did her about like Bob Nelson done me.”

The situation worsened when Betty married Ron Gilpin, who was physically violent and alcoholic. He used to beat his wife. He left his family in 1968:

“I was real lucky to live. Can you imagine what that done to Debbie? She was about 12 years old.”

Debbie used to grow up in an instable home and was surrounded by violence and this my partly explain why she made Marshall live a traumatic childhood. Debbie Mathers seems to have an irrational and instable character. It is also well known that she had a lot of men in her life. Betty remembers the boyfriend who devastated her appartment:

‘Debbie had a lot of men in and out of her life, including one memorable boyfriend called Charlie. He went home and destroyed their duplex – even cutting up their king-sized waterbed. She called me crying, asking me to help clean up the flood.’

Kim confirms what we already know: Debbie used to constantly kick Marshall out of her house:

“It was rough, to say the least. She kicked us out every other day, threw temper tantrums, threw (things) at us.”

The situation with Debbie was so unbearable that Marshall had to move to friends’ home when he was 20.

DJ Rec recalls: “”It was basically that his mom was screwed up and he didn’t want to be around it, Marshall didn’t do any drugs or drink. He was just dating Kim off and on and doing the music thing, that’s about it. He moved in with us because he didn’t have nowhere else to go.”

Of course, Debbie Mathers gives us another version of the facts. She manages to present herself like a victim: a victim of her protective behavior towards Marshall, a victim of Kim’s jealousy, a victim of the records labels wishes for Eminem’s lyrics etc… In fact, Debbie never questions herself about the mistakes she could have made in the past.
You can read her statements here:

http://216.109.117.135/search/cache?p=debbie+mathers%27+childhood&ei=UTF-8&cop=mss&b=21&u=archive.salon.com/people/conv/2001/02/21/debbie_mathers/print.html&w=debbie+mathers+childhood&d=17BCDB3854&c=483&yc=20888&icp=1

She even manages to justify her 12 Million dollars lawsuit against her son. Then she claims to love him. The same sick song again and again.

As Eminem points it out (Betty Kresin said nearly the same about her own daughter’s love for lawsuits):

“My mother never worked, so her income was lawsuits. My mother was in K-Mart and my brother hit her with a toy, and she said a rack fell on her and sued K-Mart… »

Men used to be another income ressource for Debbie:

« My mother would move them in, now able to laugh at the memory, and then she would kick them out and keep their stuff.” (Eminem)

But the worst was Debbie’s sickness (Munchausen’s syndrome) :

“My mother said I was a hyper kid and I wasn’t. She put me on Ritalin.”

Nobody would take Debbie seriously when so many people testify against her. Her own son Nathan wouldn’t describe her as nuts if she had a normal behavior.

In fact, Marshall can be lucky to have overcome his horrible past. He can be proud to be where he is now, as he told it to Howard Stern:

“I look back on where I came from and I’m kind of proud.”

The only person who really sticks up for her is Todd Nelson who seems to have the same financial interest than her sister. Todd Nelson’s attitude is a shame.
He is trying to make money out of any little document from Marshall and he spreads as many rumors in different magazines. Money is his only motivation. In my opinion, this man is a pityful loser. He even dared stating in his tape “The Man Behind the Mask” that he taught Marshall how to rap. Can you picture Todd Nelson standing in front of the camera with a guitar and pointing out ridiculous statements such as those? Who is going to believe him?
Uncle Todd also wants his nephew to look like a lier in front of the world.
He totally denies that Debbie abused her son and is trying to explain Marshall’s anger through the absence of his dad:

“Marshall was always very resentful over not having a father figure in his life. Growing up, he felt like he missed out on a lot.
“But all this stuff about him being abused as a child, is so far from the truth, it’s just laughable.
“Debbie did everything she could for him when he was growing up. She bought him his first car – a Lincoln Continental – and ran around after him so he didn’t have to take responsibility for anything. She’s done the same thing with her youngest, Nathan, and he’s growing up to be an equally spoiled brat.”

Nelson is very eager to make money out of Marshall’s name. He has even built his own website using the rappers name. Of course, (you guessed it) you got to pay to access to the family pictures and other former documents.
Todd pretends that the way Marshall portrays his mom in 8 Mile is a total lie. He says that Debbie received a consequent amont of money from Universal Pictures to keep silent for three years:

“Debbie told me Universal Pictures were going to pay her £50,000 over three years in return for her silence.
“They didn’t want her doing any interviews or making any comment on the film because they wanted cinemagoers to believe it was Eminem’s life story they were seeing up there on the screen.
“But Debbie knew the truth. It’s not something she did for the money, despite what people might think.
“She did it for Marshall because that’s what he wanted and she’s desperate to be reconciled with him.”

Who would believe Todd’s story? Marshall is rich enough, he doesn’t need to fake the truth.
According to the latest news on Debbie, she is gravely ill. She is battling with breast cancer and she would love to reconcile with her son.
Of course, she has been through a lot since Marshall is famous as her brother points it out:

“Debbie can’t go out anywhere in Detroit without being recognised. And normally it ends up with her being abused or attacked.
“She’s had everything from eggs thrown at her to cigarette butts flicked at her. She got so fed up with people cursing or staring at her that she’ll only do her shopping in the middle of the night.
“It’s a terrible way to live and nobody deserves what she’s been through.”

There is no excuse for Eminem fans acting like this. I could never picture myself insulting Debbie in real life. After all, she remains Marshall’s mom. And even for giving birth to the most talented rapper, she deserves respect.
Knowing his mom is facing terminal cancer and that she feels lost and hopeless, maybe it would be high time for mom and son to forget about the past and to reconcile for each of them to live peacefully.