Jewel told listeners of a podcast shared Monday that her mother stole $100,000,000 from her throughout her career.
The 48-year-old singer, whose full name is Jewel Kilcher, made the statement during an interview on “The Very Well Mind” podcast that released Monday.
“I didn’t really realize what my mom was until I was 30-something. I woke up and realized she embezzled all of my money, over $100 million,” she told host Amy Morin. “Thirty-four years old, realize I’m $3 million in debt, realize my mom stole it, realize everything I thought my mom was, isn’t what she was, very difficult psychological thing to come to terms with.”
The singer has sold more than 27 million albums and won four Grammys over the course of her career.
Jewel’s mother and father divorced when she was a child, and she went to live with her father, she explained on the podcast. “Nobody told me it’s because my mom didn’t want to be a mom. She left us, and so my dad took over raising us. I didn’t know that at the time,” she continued. “My dad was this volatile alcoholic that hit me, very easy to identify ‘bad guy.’ My mom seemed like the opposite.”
She described her mother as “soft” noting that “she never yelled” but that the lack of overt violence concealed other abusive tendencies. (RELATED: Son Of ‘Yellowstone’ Star Is On His Way To His Own Celebrity As D1 Athlete)
Jewel has opened up about her struggles with her upbringing in her memoir “Never Broken,” Fox News noted. She also founded the Inspiring Children non-profit in the early 2000s, which focuses on youth mental health.
Listen to the full podcast episode below: