“Charlie’s Angels” television star Minka Kelly has led an unconventional life and experienced things with which many 31-year-olds are unfamiliar.
In a recent interview with Cosmopolitan, the “Sexiest Woman Alive” opened up about the 2008 death of her mother, who worked as a stripper for much of the actress’s life. Three years ago, Kelly’s mother died in her arms from colon cancer. But Kelly faced trouble long before her mom’s diagnosis.
Growing up in a one-parent household, Kelly would often be woken up by her mom in the middle of the night to go to the supermarket. Her mother, of course, had just finished up a shift at the strip club and needed to buy groceries. Though young and intrigued by the adventure, Kelly was wise enough to recognize these late night trips were irresponsible, particularly when her mom encouraged her to play hooky.
“That was like our big Friday,” Kelly told the magazine. “She would want me to skip school. ‘Let’s go spend some money!’ I was like: ‘No, Mum, I’ve gotta go to school’.”
While many girls would be happy to have a “cool mom,” Kelly was simply looking for a parent.
“I didn’t know how to appreciate what good friends we were because I just wanted her to be my mum,” Kelly told the publication.
Kelly was raised by her mother, even though her dad, Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay, was interested in being a family.
“It wasn’t like he didn’t want to be part of our lives,” the Los Angeles native said. “He wanted to try to do the family thing. It was my mum who was too busy having fun.” (PHOTOS: The greatest of Charlie’s Angels: Minka Kelly [SLIDESHOW])
Kelly, who was with her mom at the moment of her death, says her mother could have properly attended to her colon cancer early on.
“That’s detectable,” Kelly said. “Talk about being reckless and not paying attention to your body.”
Last year, Esquire named Kelly the “Sexiest Woman Alive.” In the accompanying interview, the brunette stunner shared tidbits about her unusual childhood, which she seemed to appreciate in spite of its peculiarity.
“My mom lived a fast life,” Kelly told Esquire. “It was all about what we could do to have fun with nothing. She — for most of my life, she was a dancer. An exotic dancer. She was a stripper. Um, so she would come home at like three, four o’clock in the morning, and sometimes she would have a really great night, and so she would wake me up in the middle of the night and we’d go to Ralphs and go grocery shopping. And that was so much fun. We’d have the whole grocery store to ourselves, and we would have a blast and buy a hundred dollars in groceries. And it was just the best day ever. The best day.”