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Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
(Photo by Debbie Hickey/Getty Images)

Lauryn Hill Issues Statement After Selah Marley Shares Videos Detailing Childhood Trauma

Hill shared a lengthy statement on Instagram addressing her daughter Selah Marley's recollection of her childhood.

Lauryn Hill has responded to the graphic allegations shared by her daughter Selah Marley detailing how the Grammy winner disciplined her during her childhood. 

On Facebook, the singer-songwriter addressed Marley’s detailed recollections of the harmful discipline she received on behalf of her mother. She wrote, “Selah has every right to express herself, I encourage it, but she also got the discipline that black children get because we are held to a different standard.” Hill also added, “The discipline was seen through the lens of a young child who also had no place to reconcile me as mom, and me as a larger than life public figure. It took me a while to realize that my children, and probably everyone who knew me saw me in this duality.”

Hill went on to express that if she’s guilty of anything it is “disciplining in anger, not in disciplining.” She also plainly shared that the industry’s treatment of her which she felt was trying to break her as an artist seeped into her personal life. “I was affected, my family was affected, my children were affected.”

On the negative backlash she’s been receiving after Selah shared her traumatic experiences, she wrote:

"We're both learning and healing, and each of my children has a similar story and journey. All of you in a rush to crucify someone, careful who you string up or nail up. You might have an extremely limited view of the actual reality. We all hate abuse and exploitation, sometimes in an effort to fight against it we can easily become the abuser, the exploiter, and THIS is what we have to watch for. No one is exempt from needing to watch themselves in this way." 

The first video that Selah released was two hours long and in it she detailed that her mother was “very angry” throughout her childhood. She also recalled moments where Hill would tell her to get a belt, she then re-enacted the moment when she would “hold our hands” together in the air “as she beat us.” 

Selah also spoke on the absence of her father, Rohan Marley in addition to sharing that she recalls him and her other arguing during her younger years. Rohan has issued a public apology since she publicly mentioned him.

In a newer video, she shared she was speaking from a “place of healing.” After fans responded to Selah’s videos, she has publicly defended both of her parents. Marley expressed this by saying fans shouldn’t go bashing her father or her family. “I never said that I did not love them. I said their shortcomings created trauma that I now need to consciously and actively heal from.”