Jewel Claims Her Mom Stole $100M From Her & Left Her 'Millions' In Debt At Age 34
"I didn't realize I was being abused."
Jewel.
Jewel is opening up about her family life and sharing personal details about how she lost a lot of money to her mother, whom she accused of "stealing" from her when she was younger.
The American singer appeared on the Verywell Mind Podcast, where she spoke about her troubled relationship with her mother and claims she stole over $100 million from her.
Jewel, whose full name is Jewel Kilcher, told host and licensed therapist Amy Morin that she didn't realize "what my mom was until I was 30-something" and after she "embezzled" all of her money.
"Thirty-four years old, I realize I'm $3 million in debt, realize my mom stole it, realize everything I thought my mom was, isn't what she was," the 48-year-old singer said.
"Very difficult psychological thing to come to terms with."
According to Entertainment Tonight, Jewel has been estranged from her mom, Lenedra Carroll, since the early 2000s. Carroll was also once the singer's business manager.
The Grammy-award-winning singer also told Morin she had to come to grips with the idea that she was lied to.
"Then, as I started investigating the truth about what my mom had told me in my life versus what was true, I realized that pretty much everything I had formed my reality on was fiction."
In the episode, Jewel also spoke about her dad, Atz Kilcher, who divorced from her mom when she was just 8 years old.
"My dad was this volatile alcoholic that hit me, very easy to identify 'bad guy.'" She also explained that her mom had left them when she was a child, so her dad took over raising her and her siblings.
It wasn't until later that she realized her dad didn't take her away from her mom and that her mom simply didn't want to be there.
"My mom seemed like the opposite [of her dad]. She was calm, she was soft, she never yelled, obviously never hit me. And I didn't realize I was being abused in another way at the time."
Jewel also detailed other aspects of her troubled childhood and answered the question of whether she had any adult role models to look up to.
"The amount of trauma in my life, the amount of neglect, moving out at 15, the amount of adult situations I was in — I was bar singing as an 8-year-old, I was around predators, I had a very scary life."
According to PEOPLE, this isn't the first time Jewel has spoken about her relationship with her mom.
The outlet notes that she also wrote about it in her 2015 memoir, Never Broken - Songs Are Only Half the Story.
"I can't tell you the tears I've cried to see who my mom really is," Jewel wrote in the book, per PEOPLE.
"I can't tell you about the pain and how my heart to this day screams to have a mom in my life. But I know that it is not safe with her. Every day I miss having a mom. But I don't miss Nedra."
PEOPLE reports that Jewel, who is also a mother to an 11-year-old son Kase Townes Murray, uses what she learned throughout her life to help cope with other issues she faces.
More than 20 years ago, Jewel co-founded the Inspiring Children's Foundation, which helps at-risk youth in Las Vegas.
Carroll has not been charged with financial crimes related to her daughter at this time.