Parenting: Jay-Z speaks on how underprepared he felt about being a father

The 48-year-old rapper who has a 6-year-old daughter Blue Ivy and 9-month-old twins Rumi and Sir with wife, Beyonce, grew up without his own dad in his life, so felt underprepared for parenthood because he didn’t have a role model to look up to.

Speaking during My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman, he says: “There were not very many examples for us growing up of that.” However, everything just clicked into place for him when his first child was born.

The Empire State of Mind hitmaker admitted he felt a bunch of anger towards his father when he was growing up, but his stance softened as he got older.

“As a kid, I had a bunch of anger towards him, but as I grew up I realised that the things he went through in life were very difficult.

“I’m not heartbroken at this point in my life. I wake up, I look around, I look at my kids, they’re healthy…

“I feel grateful every day.”

Jay admitted he and his wife have done a lot of hard work in therapy to keep their marriage together, and he has strived to find the “emotional tools” he needs to do that after growing up in an environment where he was told to “be a man, stand up, don’t cry.”

His words: “I want to have the emotional tools that it keeps to keep my family together.

“We did the hard work of going to therapy, we love each other.”

Contact Music