Angela Simmons doesn’t speak about the death of her child’s father very often, but is now opening up to the world on Growing Up Hip Hop.
Daughter of hip-hop icon Rev. Run, Angela Simmons, 32, lost her former fiancé, Sutton Tennyson, after an argument with a man named Michael Williams turned deadly. Autopsy reports show that Williams shot Sutton over a dozen times in the chest, arms, legs, and stomach. He and Simmoms had a son, Sutton Jr, together who is now three. On a recent episode of Growing Up Hip Hop she met with a life coach to discuss personal issues she had been going through and in a very vulnerable moment, shared that her son is now asking about where his father is.
She says that while she was out with him one day he noticed a car and asked if that was his daddy’s car. She started asking him if she wanted to see his dad, to which he replied, “yeah.” “I’m showing him videos and pictures and stuff, and then he stops and it’s not like he’s full conversational yet, so that’s what makes this emotional and he was like, ‘Is he alive?,’” Angela said during the episode.
She explained to the counselor that that was the first time that she had to explain to her son that his dad was not alive. “He doesn’t even say the word ‘alive,’ so for him to, like ask that is, like, woah. Like, did you really just say, ‘Is he alive?’ And I was just like, ’No, he’s not.’” The reality star and fashion mogul broke down in tears telling the rest of the story and said that her son told her he was sad. “ How do you explain to a 3-year-old that they’re never going to see them again?” she said. “Other than my own way, which is like, ‘He’s in Heaven, he’s with God,’ all of the great things. Then he kind of laid his head in my chest, and told me he was sad.”
The counselor comforted her and let her know that losing someone like a parent is traumatic for anyone, no matter what the age is especially since she’s still grieving herself. Simmons responds and says, “that is definitely something I am still dealing with.”
Sutton passed away on November 3rd 2018. We are praying for Angela Simmons and her family as this moment was truly heartbreaking to watch.
