Congratulations are in order for JAY-Z‘s mother, Gloria Carter. The New York native exchanged vows with her longtime partner, Roxanne Wilshire, in a celebrity-filled ceremony in New York on Sunday. Some of the attendees included the bride’s son and daughter-in-law, Beyoncé, as well as the internet’s favorite dancer Blue Ivy, Tina Knowles, Kelly Rowland and more. According to TMZ, the party went until the wee hours of the morning.
JAY-Z has openly supported Carter, who came out as a lesbian in 2017. That same year, the rapper told his mother’s story in the track “Smile,” which was included in his 4:44 album. The song, which sampled Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” Carter recited a poem about her experience keeping her sexuality a secret. She revealed that she decided to stay in the closet for so long because she didn’t want to hurt her loved ones.
About a year after dropping “Smile,” JAY-Z opened up to David Letterman about learning of his mother’s sexuality, Essence reported. He recounted the emotional experience, saying it brought him to tears.
“This was the first time we had the conversation,” JAY-Z said while appearing on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. “And the first time I heard her say she loved her partner. Like, ‘I feel like I love somebody.’ She said ‘I feel like.’ She held that little bit back, still. She didn’t say ‘I’m in love,’ she said ‘I feel like I love someone.’ And I just, I cried. I don’t even believe in crying because you’re happy. I don’t even know what that is. What is that?”
Carter spoke about coming out too, back in 2017 while appearing on the now defunct D’ussé Friday podcast.
“Me and my son, we share a lot of information, so I was sitting there and I was telling him one day, I just finally started telling him who I was,” she said. “Besides your mother, this is the person that I am, you know? This is the life that I live.”
In 2019, JAY-Z celebrated his mother at the GLAAD Media Awards and thanked her for letting him tell her story.
“I get to follow in her footsteps of spreading love and acceptance, and her beautiful speech at the end of ‘Smile’ and for her allowing me to tell her story,” he said of his mother in his speech. “And I want everyone to acknowledge that.”
