Fans of Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, are very familiar with his former ex-wife Kimberly Anne Scott (Kim) and their daughter Hailie Jade Mathers through his music.
The two women have featured heavily in the Detroit rapper’s lyrics. The public’s view of Kim Scott has arguably been shaped by Eminen’s not-so-complimentary lyrics directed at his ex-wife, a fact that made Scott claim she was pushed into a suicide attempt.
Marshall and Kimberly were high school sweethearts who appear to have had a very turbulent on and off-again relationship.
Kimberly Scott had a troubled childhood
Scott and her twin sister Dawn were born in Warren, Michigan, in 1975. It is unlikely that they knew their biological father as kids. In 1988, they fled their alcoholic stepfather and settled in a youth shelter just outside Detroit.
Mathers met Scott when he was 15, and she was 13; he took her home, where Marshall’s mother, Debbie Nelson, allowed the troubled girl to stay.
As Mathers and Scott’s relationship blossomed, the pair were told to leave Nelson’s home. They then lived in a succession of seedy, crime-riddled neighborhoods as they tried to eke out a living while Mather’s tried to break into the music industry.
In 1995, Scott gave birth to Hailie Jade Mathers on Christmas Day. However, the relationship between herself and Mathers was becoming increasingly tumultuous with constant break-ups and reconciliations.
Despite this, the pair married in 1999 just as Mather’s was becoming a global star. Still, Scott was becoming increasingly annoyed by Mather’s violent alter ego Slim Shady, who would sing about murdering her.
In 2000 after seeing Mathers perform his single Kim in which he punched a blow-up doll made to look like his wife on stage, she attempted suicide by slashing her wrists. In 2001 she filed for divorce.
After her divorce from Mathers, Scott then had a relationship with Missouri tattoo artist Eric Hatter. Scott had a daughter with Hatter in 2002, Whitney Scott Mathers, who was subsequently adopted by Eminem. Apparently, Hatter never met his daughter. The rapper adopted Whitney while her mother was undergoing treatment for drug addiction.
Kimberly Scott and Eminem have been married twice
Mathers and Scott remained in contact through the shared custody of their children, and they even rekindled their old romance marrying again in 2006, but that union only lasted 41 days.
In subsequent years, Scott battled depression and drug abuse which culminated in another suicide attempt in 2015 when she deliberately drove her Cadillac into a telegraph pole.
While Scott and Mathers are no longer romantically involved, the pair supposedly enjoy a warm, friendly relationship.
Scott has had her own career as a freelance illustrator and designer who works on children’s books.
Eminem was in the news twice last month after he gave a surprising performance at this year’s Oscars when he sang the 17-year old single Lose Yourself.
He also surprised folks the previous month when he released a new album with his single, Darkness, that focused on calling for an end to gun violence.