Renée Elise Goldsberry opens up about ‘emotional’ past miscarriage
The “Girls5Eva” star shared a “beautiful” full circle moment while reflecting on “The Color Purple” musical.
Renée Elise Goldsberry opened up about a challenging experience she endured as she starred as Nettie in the original “The Color Purple” musical on Broadway.
During a recent appearance on the “Jennifer Hudson Show,” the “Girls5Eva” star, along with her castmates, went down memory lane with Hudson about the group’s various previous musical performances. When Hudson asked Goldsberry what it was like to also star in “The Color Purple,” the actress noted how the new film iteration made her reflect.
“It was a beautiful thing for me, because ‘The Color Purple,’ your production, was literally exactly ten years from when I had done it on Broadway,” Goldsberry noted, referencing Hudson’s appearance in the Broadway revival. “And it was an emotional time for me, doing ‘The Color Purple,’ because I had lost a baby doing ‘The Color Purple.’”
She continued, noting that in 2016, when she won the Tony for best featured actress in a musical for her work in “Hamilton”, she remembered “thinking when I was receiving a Tony and thanking God for the opportunity to have been in that show and to have been in this show and to have these children.”
Goldsberry added, “And I looked out, and I saw the producers and all of you out in the audience in ‘The Color Purple’ again, and it just felt like God was telling me, ‘Don’t you ever forget what I can give you in spite of what you think you’ve lost.’”
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Goldsberry shares a son, Benjamin, turning 15 in May, and a daughter, Brielle, whom she welcomed via adoption in 2014, with her husband, Alexis Johnson. The mother of two opened up about motherhood in 2020 with People magazine.
“My greatest wish for my children is that they fulfill their purpose,” she said. “I know that all children, and in particular mine, are here for a reason.”
She noted how her journey to motherhood had been “challenging, to say the least.” However, she added that she believes that children “getting here means they’re supposed to be here.”
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