Eminem’s half-brother, Nathan “Nate” Kane Mathers, shared a message about his complicated emotions following the death of their mother, Debbie Nelson.
Debbie passed away on December 2 at the age of 69 after a battle with advanced lung cancer.
Known for her tumultuous relationship with her sons, her death has reignited conversations about the complex bond she shared with her two sons.
Eminem’s mother Debbie Nelson passed away at the age of 69 after a battle with advanced lung cancer
While Eminem, 52, has not publicly commented on her passing, 38-year-old Nate took to social media to share a glimpse of his feelings.
“Hatred and mixed emotions today,” he wrote.
The DJ and music producer has had a fraught relationship with his mother over the years.
Debbie got married to the Without Me rapper’s father, Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr., when she was 15 years old. She became pregnant with Eminem (whose real name is Marshall Mathers III) about 16 months after tying the knot.
Nathan “Nate” Kane Mathers, Eminem’s half-brother, shared a message about his emotions following his mother’s death
Eminem’s father abandoned him and his mother when he was just a baby.
Debbie then welcomed Nate in 1986 with her boyfriend Fred Samra. Eminem was 13 years old at the time.
Nate was placed in foster care at the age of 8.
“I watched him when he was in the foster home,” Eminem told Rolling Stone in 2004. “He was so confused. I mean, 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.”
Debbie’s death reignited discussions about her strained relationship with both of her sons, Eminem and Nate
“They had come and got him out of school. He didn’t know what the f— was going on. The same thing that had happened in my life was happening in his,” he added.
The rapper was about 23 when his younger brother was placed in foster care, and he tried multiple times to gain custody of him.
“When he was taken away I always said if I ever get in a position to take him, I would take him,” he said in the same interview. “I tried to apply for full custody when I was 20, but I didn’t have the means.”
The 15-time Grammy winner gained custody of his half-brother about a decade later when Nate was 16 years old.
She married Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. when she was 15 and became pregnant with Eminem 16 months later
The younger brother has spoken about Eminem’s influence on his life in the past and called him a “role model.”
“He was the best role model I could have had to help me be the dad that I am today,” he said on the Just a Little Shady podcast, hosted by Eminem’s daughter, Hailie Jade Scott, in February 2023.
“He would get so many free clothes and buy clothes that I would just take some,” he added. “I would take his hand-me-downs, his huge Phat Farm outfits and stuff that I thought would fit me. What was I, like 110 pounds that time just trying to wear 3XL? [It] fit perfect!”
Nate, who was born when his older brother was 13, said after his mother’s death: “Hatred and mixed emotions today”
Nate has been featured in several of his older sibling’s music videos, including The Way I Am, Without Me, and Sing for the Moment.
He also acted in the 2020 crime thriller movie Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge.
“I had learned from your dad, my brother, how to do music and how to write formulas, compound syllables, whatnot, and tested it out in the beginning,” he said on the podcast.
“From there, I started looking around for beats and whatnot and got comfortable enough with my voice and writing skills that I started recording and getting a feel for songs, how I would deliver them and how that would formulate to where people would enjoy it,” he went on to say.
Despite a turbulent childhood, the Without Me rapper fought to gain custody of Nate and considerably influenced his younger brother’s life
Eminem often used his tumultuous upbringing as a muse for his music, with tracks like Cleanin’ Out My Closet and My Mom suggesting painful aspects of his relationship with his mother.
“What mother wants to be known as a pill-popping alcoholic who lives on welfare?” Debbie wrote in her 2008 memoir My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem. “None of it was true, but the fibs kept getting bigger, and ultimately Marshall and I became estranged.”
In a 2011 interview, the Mockingbird rapper iterated his love for his mother.
“He was the best role model I could have had to help me be the dad that I am today,” Nate previously said about Eminem
“Even though we don’t really speak, she is my mother, I do love her,” he was quoted saying in a 2011 BET interview, “and I think I got a better understanding of what she was going through or what she may be going through.”
When her first-born son was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, Debbie shared a message dedicated to her son.
“Marshall, I could not let this day go by without congratulating you on your induction to the Hall of Fame. I love you very much. I knew you’d get there. And it’s been a long ride,” she said.
“I hope they had reconciled and come to love one another,” one social media user said following her death
