Gloria Estefan and Emilio Estefan are super supportive of their daughter Emily Estefan; however, when Emily opened up about her gender preferences, Gloria was concerned about how other family members would react.
In a recent interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace, the singer said that revealing that her daughter is gay to her mom would have been tricky. “In the Latin community, a lot of these subjects aren’t touched; they’re taboo,” the 65-year-old star said. “People see — but they don’t want to talk about it; they don’t want to see it.”
© GettyImages“Emily, I thought, would feel comfortable coming out to me,” the Cuban superstar said. But when it comes to sharing the news with the elderly in the family, she was “reluctant to have her come out to her grandmother.”
“We’ve been very, very open about the support for the LGBTQ community our entire lives, and at the same time, I had a mother with ulcerative colitis that even if I brought up a bill — or something that was not even important — would get very upset,” she said while speaking about her late mom, Gloria Fajardo.
© @emily_estefan“We’re all just families trying to get through the difficult moments in life,” she continued. “Life is complicated; life is tough.”
During a 2020 episode of the Red Table Talk: The Estefans — a Facebook Watch series by the Estefan family — the famed singer and her daughter discussed Emily’s coming out story.
The mother and daughter opened up about the turmoil, hurtful comments, and more that took place during that emotional time in their lives. Gloria explained that Emily attempted to come out to her parents by asking them a general question about her sexuality.
“We were in the car, and you like leaned over very excitedly and asked your dad and I, ‘Guys, do you think that I might be gay?’” Gloria explained in the interview.
“You said, ‘Only you can know that,’” Emily responded to her mother. “But when I asked you that question, it was like testing the waters because I was afraid. I was having conversations in my head, trying to figure out ... who am I? What is this? Where do I fit? I was learning that I preferred women.”
© Red Table Talk: The EstefansEmily explained the difficulties she faced with figuring out her sexuality and who she was. The famous daughter revealed during the interview that she dated both men and women in the past to figure out who she preferred. She explained on the show that she felt like something was wrong with her. The Estefan daughter said on Red Table Talk that it wasn’t until she met her partner that she felt it was time to come out as her true self, but of course, she was nervous to do so.
“I was like, ‘Hey, I’m in love with this girl.’ The first thing you said was, ‘If you tell your grandma and she dies, the blood is on your hands.’ I just wasn’t ready for that because I understand that grandma was old, but I already made it feel like, whatever it is, hide it, it’s not OK. So that’s where my hurt started. I’m never going to forget that,” Emily emotionally recalled in the interview.
“I was trying to protect both my ailing mother from any shock that would affect her health and Emily from anything that could harm their relationship,” Gloria said trying to justify her hurtful comment to her daughter.
