Stevie's Childhood Hell: Wonder's Mother Claims She Was Forced Into Prostitution By His Father
Jun. 6 2016, Published 9:50 a.m. ET
Music legend Stevie Wonder has a disturbing family secret. RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that the singer's allegedly abusive father once forced his mother into prostitution.
Wonder, who grew up poverty-stricken in Saginaw, Michigan, was one of six children born to Calvin Judkins and Lula Mae Hardaway.
His mother allegedly suffered at the hands of her physically and emotionally abusive husband, and went on to share her many struggles in her memoir, Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder's Mother.
In the tell-all, she described a night when the family was struggling to pay bills. Eventually, her husband came up with an extreme solution.
"I want you to go take a ride with a man, he gave me some money, he's waiting in his car on the street. Be nice to him. You just do whatever he wants you to do!" she claimed he said.
When Hardaway cringed at the thought, her husband allegedly twisted her arm, smashed her against the wall and screamed, "You go out there and do what he says or I'll beat you like you never been beat. You know I will!"
She did what she was told, but soon after the chilling incident she fled with her kids to Detroit, where her son went on to become a music icon by singing on street corners and impressing Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr.
Gordy launched the star's career as "Little Stevie Wonder," and five decades later, the rest is music history.