Cuban music superstar Gloria Estefan has shared insight into why she didn’t want her daughter, Emily Estefan, to come out to her grandmother.
Chris Wallace of CNN asked Gloria about the topic, because it came about in an emotional conversation on her show, Red Table Talk: The Estefans.
“Your daughter … calls you out,” he prompted as Gloria nodded.
He referenced an episode where her daughter explained that her mother did not want her to come out to her sick grandmother before she passed away.
"In the Latin community, a lot of these subjects aren't touched, they're taboo," Gloria explained to Chris. "People see — but they don't want to talk about it, they don't want to see it."
"Emily, I thought, would feel comfortable coming out to me," Gloria, 65, said of her daughter, 27, who said that Gloria was "reluctant to have her come out to her grandmother" before her death on their shared Facebook Watch show.
"We've been very very open about the support for the LGBTQ community our entire lives. At the same time, I had a mother with ulcerative colitis that even if I brought up a bill — or something that was not even important — would get very upset," she added.
Gloria’s mother, Gloria Fajardo, died in 2017 at age 88.
It was important to the Estefan family to address this moment on show. Gloria said that she had fans who “loved her through the years,” and she wanted them to know that all families go through struggles, even the famous ones.
"We're all just families trying to get through the difficult moments in life," she continued. "Life is complicated, life is tough."
She added, “we wanted to share those things with people so they would realize these are conversations we need to have.”
The musical family’s show, which premiered in 2020, is a spinoff of Red Table Talk and is produced by Jada Pinkett Smith.
Ahead of the show’s debut, Gloria expressed her excitement for the project to People. "It's three generations of women with our own points of view which may surprise people who think they know what we will say."
Gloria Estefan, Emily Estefan, and Gloria’s niece Lili Estefan, 55, host the show together.
They knew going into the show that they would be addressing hard topics, and that’s what they wanted.
"The girls and I will talk about everything from motherhood to spirituality, social media and sexuality," she said.
"My daughter Emily came out last year, so I think this is a good topic for families to hear because sex is a subject they don't like to discuss."
Emily Estefan has been very open on social media about her journey and experience. For National Coming Out Day in 2020, she posted a photo with the caption, "Be you. Be kind. Be better. Be open, be careful if you feel unsafe, be LOVE."
