Chuck Fenda, Abandoned As A Baby, Breaks Down In Tears While Talking Reunion With Mom

American-born Reggae recording artist Leshorn Whitehead, popularly known in the music industry as Chuck Fenda, broke down in tears during a recent interview, while speaking about a planned reunion with his mother.  The artist, who grew up with his grandmother in Jamaica, said his mother had abandoned him at 6 weeks old.

On Friday, Chuck Fenda, who is widely known for songs such as I Swear, Poor People Cry, Come Over and Gash Dem in the mid-2000s had an interview on TVJ’s Smile Jamaica with host, Simone Clarke-Cooper to talk about his new single, Eternal Fire that dropped a week ago.

The conversation eventually led to his journey on mending the relationship with his estranged mother.

Fenda told Cooper that he doesn’t know his birth parents. Having never seen or met his father, he said his mother took him to Spanish Town, Jamaica to live with his grandparents when he was a mere 6 weeks old. Over the years growing up, he made several attempts to reach out to his mother, who lives in California.

They finally reconnected via Whatsapp in 2017, at the encouragement of relatives, according to the Jamaica STAR.  However, the artist revealed last week, that he felt his mother was still apprehensive about contact in 2017 because of how he was conceived. “The one thing I realised when I first get in contact with her several years ago is that she was tense, maybe it has something to do with how I was produced,” he told the STAR.

But then, she reached out to Fenda again last year.  The Mama singer, now 48 years old and the father of 11 children, told Cooper that his mother sent him a lengthy email explaining why she had abandoned him all those years ago.  He said he has never stopped loving his mother and is anticipating seeing her in person soon.

“I still love her same way. The other day she called me and she sent me a long email explaining everything. So deep down in my heart I have to forgive her … because I understand maybe what transpired with her but she could at least call and say boy you aright or xyz but a lot of mothers go through this and a lot of children go through this as well.”

“Even as a big man like me..when Mother’s Day come across, me neva understand it,” he lamented.

As the time nears to finally see his mother, Fenda said, “I’m talking to her, she called the other day to say she want us to meet up …but the pandemic came along and I didn’t get to fly to California to see her… I’d really love to see her and hug her …” but he was unable to even finish his sentence.

The Reggae crooner suddenly became overwhelmed with emotions and began crying on camera, bringing the interview to a premature halt.

Cooper reacted saying that she felt Fenda’s pain.

“Chuck, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know that’s not an easy discussion to have for anybody, any man, much less any artist and I thank you so much for opening up your heart to us this morning and to where that took you,” the host said.

In his interview with the STAR in 2017, Fenda said that “throughout my conversations with my mother, she tell me what happen. She was really young, and when she went to look for my grandmother at the hospital one day she meet an elderly guy, and had sex the one night and never see him back.”

He said that he was aware that his mother visited the island twice during his childhood, once when he was two years old and again when his grandmother had passed away.

“I never let that bother me too much because my grandparents always take care a me. My grandmother used to feed patients in the hospital while my grandfather was a hard-working shoemaker. I call him my father. He grew me different, made sure I nuh take up badness. And I never take the route although I was exposed to it,” the singer added.

Eternal Fire

Fenda said his new single Eternal Fire was a call to action for the current times.

“If you see what’s happening now with children being murdered and di struggle weh everyday people going through … the single mothers, the single fathers dem,” he said, even adding that the music industry is suffering as can be reflected with the overly violent music that artistes are putting out nowadays.

Eternal Fire is his effort of preserving the music and the culture and bringing it back to a ‘purified’ state. Watch the visuals here –