Tragic Details About Eminem's Daughter Hailie Mathers
For as big a role as she played in her father's music, much of Hailie Mathers' younger years stayed private. Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers) became one of the biggest names in hip-hop and one of the best-selling artists of all time, but his relationship with his daughter remained a close-held secret. The world got to see their lives through the lens of the rapper's songs, and they didn't paint a pretty picture. His being away, the problems between him and her mother, and the addictions they both experienced are prominent features of the artist's work.
There were obvious struggles for Hailie Mathers growing up. She's become a public figure on her own now, and fans have gotten to see more behind the curtain of her life and her relationship with her very famous father. Listening to his songs can be hard for her at times, but it has helped her realize how much she was protected from everything else going on around her. "I will say, like, watching the video back and listening to the songs, I feel like my parents did such a good job growing up where I didn't realize how bad things were," she said on her podcast, "Just a Little Shady." "But now as like, an adult in hindsight, it's so scary to think about. And I think that's why I get emotional so much, like just thinking that could have happened."
She had a nasty rap feature at 3 years old
Hailie found her way onto a rap record at the ripe age of 3. While Eminem and Kim Scott were in another stage of fighting, he was struck with inspiration for a track and snuck Hailie out of the house. Hailie's baby voice was used on the song "97' Bonnie & Clyde," which was essentially Eminem envisioning killing Scott and then hiding the body alongside his daughter.
"I lied to Kim and told her I was taking Hailie to Chuck E Cheese that day," Eminem told Rolling Stone. "But I took her to the studio. When she found out I used our daughter to write a song about killing her, she f****** blew. We had just got back together for a couple of weeks. Then I played her the song, and she bugged the f*** out." It was a long time before he played the song for his daughter, which was another indicator of the lengths he went to shelter her from her parents' relationship.
Both of her parents experienced addiction
Kim Scott and Eminem had a rough dating life — they went through a long cycle of getting together and breaking up countless times. Much of the public's perception of Hailie's mother came through not-so-positive descriptions in the rapper's songs. A cycle of abuse, her husband's rise to stardom, and splits led her to attempt suicide on more than one occasion. Scott spent years experiencing depression and substance use issues, culminating in her crashing her car into a telephone pole after consuming alcohol and pills.
Eminem has famously been sober since 2008, but his experiences with addiction ran deep. According to the famous rapper, he didn't do any hard drugs until he became famous — that's when his substance misuse began. He became addicted to Vicodin, Valium, and alcohol, at one point taking dozens of pills in a single sitting. He did a stint in rehab, relapsed and overdosed in 2007, and then finally gained his sobriety in 2008.
She didn't grow up in a safe neighborhood
When Hailie was born in 1995, the Mathers family was stuck. Eminem's debut album had largely been unsuccessful, and they were living with Kim Scott's sister, Dawn, in a neighborhood Rolling Stone described as "crack infested." Speaking to the outlet, Scott talked about their experiences in the area. "The neighborhoods we lived in f****** sucked," she said. "I went through four TVs and five VCRs in two years."
How does one go through that many electronics? Theft. Breaking and entering was a regular occurrence, and nothing could be done about it. Eminem talked about the time a thief broke into their home solely to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "He left the peanut butter, jelly, all the s*** out and didn't steal nothing," he said.
Ultimately, they did come back with friends, taking everything in the house except the couches and beds. It led to the family bouncing around a lot between stops during Hailie's younger years. Sometimes they stayed with family, other times they split up to find enough places to sleep.
She missed a lot of time with her dad
Eminem has been described by the media and his daughter as a very hands-on father. A major focal point of his life is being involved with and there for his children. But that doesn't mean that he didn't miss out on a lot of time with them. Touring and recording schedules can be grueling, not to mention promotional work for albums and locking down to write lyrics. From the outside, most of the information the public learned about Hailie's childhood came from Eminem songs that lamented the lack of time he got to spend with her.
This perspective popped up in her first-ever interview in 2018, where the Daily Mail asked her if she saw her father much at all. Her response was "of course, we are very close." But those early years full of addiction, struggle, and riding the wave of success left a huge impression on the public as a whole — they viewed the situation through the depressing tone of Eminem's lyrics about missing his family.
She became a subject of interest in rap beefs
Many people may remember Machine Gun Kelly starting a rap feud with Eminem by talking about how attractive Hailie was (she was a teenager at the time), but not everyone remembers her early involvement in rap beefs. 50 Cent and Eminem effectively ended Ja-Rule's career with their early 2000s conflict. One of the most interesting parts of it was when Hailie hopped on another one of her father's songs, "Hailie's Revenge."
After Ja-Rule called out Kim Scott and Hailie in his Eminem diss, Marshall Mathers brought in his daughter for help. On the track, he asks Hailie to bring him his Oscar so they can shove it up Ja-Rule's a**. He then asks her what she wants to be when she grows up, to which she responds: "I don't know, but I don't want to grow up to be like Ja-Rule's little dirty-a** kids." Definitely not the place you expect to hear the voice of an 8-year-old, and it's sad that a kid would be dragged into the situation at all.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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