(CNN) — Jennifer Hudson opens up about the tragic 2008 shooting that took the life of her mother, brother and nephew in the December/January issue of Ebony, revealing that her fiance David Otunga may have saved her life.
The 30-year-old Oscar winner tells the magazine that it was because of wrestler Otunga, whom she had baby David Daniel Jr. with in 2009, that she wasn’t at home at the time of the killings.
“That’s one of the things that saved my life, because I could have been home with my mom then,” Hudson tells Ebony via People. “[Otunga] wanted me to come out to Florida with him instead of going to Chicago.”
She did fly out to see him, and “that’s why I’m still here,” Hudson continued. “I’ve never said that before, and I can’t believe I just said that now. But I didn’t know. He was just like, ‘I’m going to this wrestling thing, it’s in Tampa. I’m going out there now, so you can come out there and see me versus going home.'”
Hudson has been largely silent on the deaths of her family members, but she did discuss the tragedy in a 2010 episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music,” explaining that her slain relatives still have a strong presence in her life.
“My brother drives me in my music, my son reminds me of my nephew,” she said, “and being a mother reminds me of my mother.”
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