D.L Hughley’s daughter, Ryan Shepard, is opening up about her scarred history with her father and how her own daughter helped mend their “tumultuous relationship.”
In a poignant Instagram post, the proud mom got candid about how she and D.L. Hughley have managed to patch things up after she’d almost given up hope of reconciliation.
Sharing a clip of the comedian’s sweet interaction with his granddaughter (Ryan’s daughter), Shepard wrote in the caption:
“I’ve never publicly spoken about the fact that until very recently, my dad and I had a fairly tumultuous relationship. I thought I’d gotten myself to a place where I decided that I’d stop getting my hopes up that things would ever get better and just accepted what was.”
But despite the rocky past, Shepard shared how her daughter Nola helped build a bridge between Hughley and her.
“And then, everything changed,” she continued. “Initially, we forged a deeper connection over Nola. But then, my dad stopped calling just to see her and started calling to check on me. We began having the most amazing conversations about anything, everything, really.”
Now through the comedian being a present grandad to Nola, Shepard is finding healing for scars from her childhood.
“I’ve found myself in a space I thought I’d made peace with not being in. But now that we’re here, my heart is so full,” she added. “I’m a late blooming daddy’s girl, and watching the relationship grow between Him (lol), and Nola keeps healing parts of the little girl in me that I thought I’d given up on.”
Shepard also urged others dealing with similar situations to keep their hearts open. “If you’ve found yourself in a difficult relationship with a parent, know that even if you can’t see it, it can get better. It happened to me.”
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Hughley has two daughters, Ryan and Tyler, and a son Kyle with his longtime wife, LaDonna. Last year, Mo’Nique called out the comedian’s past admission of not believing his daughter when she told him his friend had molested her.
Shepard came to her father’s defense, clapping back at Mo’Nique, saying, “Out of all things you could have legitimately said about my dad if that’s the route you wanted to take, you chose to be deliberately mean and hurtful to two Black women who have nothing to do with this conversation.”
“Using my mama and my sister to show people my father’s character only shows how little mental stability, dignity, morality and respect you have not only for yourself but other Black women. You’re clearly two crayons short of the full box sis. You’re disgusting and you absolutely need to keep every single member of MY family’s name out of your poisonous mouth.”
“We Hughleys are going to have a good ass day and a blessed life. We are healed. We are whole and we love each other fiercely and deeply,” she added.
