I didn't inherit any great success and the problems that came with it, and yet I was able to keep working and supporting myself and later a family. I'm crazy fortunate.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
As a lower-class kid, I was raised to think success would be owning stuff. Having that great job, too. Now I find my parents' dream was wrong. You never really own anything. And you're never really finished as a person.
I have two children. I gave up a lot for my career, but I'm very happy for it. I've done what I've always thought was best for me and my family.
The best thing about success was being able to buy my parents a house.
I'm glad I'm successful at it, because it's allowed me to live very well financially, and give my kids a lot of things. It's enabled me to do stuff that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. But it's not who I am.
They made it to the middle class, my dad working as a bartender and my mother as a cashier and a maid. I didn't inherit any money from them. But I inherited something far better - the real opportunity to accomplish my dreams.
I didn't have any of those good assets to have successful teenage years. It was hard. And what saved me was definitely my whole family. I knew where I was coming from and where I was going to.
My number one thing was that if I ever did get successful enough to make it, I wanted to be able to give back to my family.
When it came to my childhood - growing up in a single-parent home, often struggling financially - my mother definitely instilled in me and my siblings this strength, this will, to just continue to survive and succeed.
I've been able to help my family financially since making my first hit record. I bought my parents a house. My husband and I have a property in Portugal and one in Mumbles, Wales, and my family are always coming out to visit us. It has been fantastic to have such a successful career and to have been able to help everyone.
Some people in my family achieved a lot, some people inherited a lot. But I turned my back on the whole thing.