Professor Green has opened up about being raised by his grandmother after his mother had him at the age of 16 and was unable to care for him.
During Wednesday’s instalment of the BBC Morning Live, the rapper, 40, whose real name is Stephen Manderson, admitted he would be ‘forever grateful’ for his Nanny Pat who raised him, as she gave him the confidence to start a career in the music industry.
He said on the show: ‘I’ll be forever grateful for my Nanny Pat. The love, support and stability she provided me helped set me up for the rest of my life…’
‘Nanny Pat’s care gave me the confidence to take on a career in music as Professor Green.’
During an interview with another kinship carer, Stephen revealed that his Nanny Pat didn’t receive much support or advice on how to help him deal with his trauma after he lost his father to suicide.
Professor Green recently opened up about his experience growing up in kinship care after his mother had him at the age of 16 and was unable to care for him
During Wednesday’s instalment of the BBC daytime programme, the rapper, 40, whose real name is Stephen Manderson, admitted he would be ‘forever grateful’ for his nanny Pat who raised him
Kinship carers are those raising the child(ren) of a relative or family friend when the child(ren)’s parents are unable to.
He revealed: ‘My grandmother was my kinship carer, she didn’t have any support in how to look after me and how to help me with the insecurities and the questions and dealing with the trauma, which inevitably was what I went through.’
In support of the national charity for kinship carers and families, Kinship, Stephen took part in a film to show why kinship carers need better support.
Unlike foster carers, most kinship carers don’t receive any financial support to look after the child they have taken in.
So, Kinship is currently campaigning through their #ValueOurLovecampaign to equalize support between kinship families and foster and adoptive families.
Currently, more than 141,000 children being raised in kinship care in England and Wales, which is more than double the number of children in foster care.
Roughly half of kinship carers are grandparents, but they can be older siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins or family friends.
It comes after the rapper revealed in 2022 that losing his father to suicide ‘threw up challenges’ for him after he welcomed his baby boy Slimane.
He said on the show: ‘I’ll be forever grateful for my Nanny Pat. The love, support and stability she provided me helped set me up for the rest of my life…’
He added: ‘Nanny Pat’s care gave me the confidence to take on a career in music as Professor Green’
Stephen welcomed a baby boy named Slimane with his fiancée Karima McAdams in March last year.
And host Stephen Dixon previously asked the rapper if his father’s passing has had any influence so far on the way he is bringing up his child.
The rapper responded: ‘It definitely threw up challenges for me, I’ll be honest about that. Something that I thought I completely processed and dealt with was brought back up to the surface and challenged me again.’
As he was shown an old photo with his father he exclaimed: ‘Wow, I haven’t seen my dad’s face in ages. It’s full circle, isn’t it?’
‘It’s not been without its challenges… I’m just aware of how much of a sponge he [Slimane] is and in my childhood, there was a lot of trauma.’
He continued: ‘That’s something that I’ve had to overcome and deal with and I don’t want to pass it on to Slimane.’
‘It is difficult because you don’t want to be so aware that it becomes your prime focus because then it becomes too present.’
‘It is a fine line and it’s a hard balance but with the support that I have from his mum, I’m pretty alright.’
It comes after the rapper revealed in 2022 that losing his father to suicide ‘threw up challenges’ for him after he welcomed his baby boy
He welcomed a baby boy named Slimane with his fiancée Karima McAdams in March 2021
Stephen lost his father Peter to suicide at the age of 24, And host Stephen Dixon previously asked the rapper if his father’s passing has had any influence so far on the way he is bringing up his child
He confessed: ‘It definitely threw up challenges for me, I’ll be honest about that. Something that I thought I completely processed and dealt with was brought back up to the surface and challenged me again’
Sharing some tips, he explained: ‘A bit of advice for parents out there, and it’s something that someone gave me recently…’
‘It’s always get someone else to take a photograph of all three of you because you always end up with photographs that have mum and baby or dad and baby but it’s never mum, dad and baby.’
In 2018, he released a new single called Photographs which reflected on his pain over not having enough images of his father.
Breaking down, he said: ‘Photographs conjure up so many different emotions. The ones I miss the most are the ones I never took.’
‘They are for me in many ways the memories I don’t have – especially the ones from my childhood. I wish I had more.’
‘I was having a conversation about photographs and how there are large parts of my life where there are no photographs.’
‘We live in an age now where we take way too many pictures. That was really when I started to incubate the idea for the single, Photographs.’
For bereavement support contact Cruse on 0808 808 1677.
