Selah Marley, the 21-year-old daughter of Lauryn Hill and Rohan Marley, took to Instagram on Monday to share a video in which she gets candid about her relationship with her parents.
In the now-deleted clip, Marley called her mother an “amazing woman” but revealed she was also “very angry” and oftentimes impossible to talk to.
“She was just very angry. So, so, so, so, so, so angry. She was literally not easy to talk to and then half the time we didn’t live with her,” she said. “I lived with my grandparents half the time… It’s crazy, I’m playing this trauma back in my head as I speak to you.”
Marley also recalled how the singer would spank her children with a belt, which she described as “slave sh*t,” The Source reports.
Read More: Lauryn Hill pens empowering letter to Temple University class of 2020
“And then the threats, the constant threats… That belt man. That’s that slave sht. That was some slavery sht. All Black parents were on that sh*t,” she continued.
Marley also confessed to having daddy issues due to her father being absent, and touched on the negative effects her parents arguing had on her.
In the video, she notes that her parents “didn’t really get to know each other” and that “they were always arguing, always fighting” and that was why she didn’t see “much peace.”
“I’d just be crying and crying and crying and crying…” she said about listening to the arguments.
“Honestly guys, I’m just hurting. I can’t even front that I’m not,” Marley said. “I’ve been hurting for so much of my life and so much of my life has been me avoiding how much I’m really hurting just from the circumstances.”
On Tuesday (Aug. 11), Rohan Marley, son of reggae icon Bob Marley, apologized to her daughter and noted in a statement that her “expression on Instagram is a healing process for her,” Rohan said in a statement released through his rep, Hollywood Life reports. “I’m very happy that she is fearless in her expression.”
“I love her very much and do apologize for any contributions I may have added by arguing in front of her as a child,” he continued. “I’ve grown as a man, a spiritual being and a father. I am constantly growing and will teach my children to always take the higher road in any disagreements. I will be there for her no matter how many hours, days, months or years it will take. I will be the best Dad that I can be. One Love.”
Read More: Bob Marley’s son, Rohan, applies to open N.J. medical marijuana dispensary
Marley also returned to social media Tuesday to defend her parents from criticism following the coverage of her initial video.
“My mother is a human, she’s not a perfect person but I’m not going to feed off all the negativity,” she said. “In the past 10 years she’s healed so much and I’ve watched her evolve and the same thing with my father. I mean he did some BS lately but my father, he’s healing as well. I came on and saw how the media misconstrued what I said, that is why I came on live it was a one dimensional narrative.”
Marley also made clear that her relationship with her mother got better during her teen years and now they are very close.
“Me and my mother are very close. She’s texting me as we speak,” she said. “Anger is a secondary emotion for sadness. I think for me growing up, remember I grew up with all brothers, so I’m like we’re fighting, we are fighting so I just learned how to be tough, I was always tough. So now coming back I’m learning how to cry again,” she confessed.
“Learning how to forgive is a big one, learning how to love, learning how to not be angry. And what I’m even learning now is how many walls I put up,” Marley added.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!