Tyler Perry posts emotional message on Facebook about Christmas, fatherhood

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

Director Tyler Perry turned to Facebook Monday with an emotional message about his first Christmas as a father.

The actor and director, 45, and his longtime girlfriend, model and activist Gelila Bekele, welcomed their first child in late November.

“This is the first Christmas in the past five years that I’ve been able to find joy,” Perry wrote on Facebook. “You see, my mother died December the 8th five years ago, and no amount of Christmas lights could replace the light that she was to me. But this year, in spite of myself, God gave me another light to shine in my heart right beside hers. God thank you!

Perry then accompanied his post with a clip from his stage play A Madea Christmas with the cast singing a stirring rendition of Mary, Did You Know?

“I wanted to dedicate this song to you this holiday season. It’s from my play A Madea Christmas, and I love this song so much that I wanted to share it,” he wrote. “It’s about Mary, the mother of Jesus, but as you listen to it, you can see that it can be about any parent. You never know who God has put into your home to raise. Take a listen.”

Follow theGrio.com’s Entertainment Editor Chris Witherspoon on Twitter @WitherspoonC.