Singer Jewel says mom stole over $100 million from her

Singer Jewel performs the national anthem prior to the 2023 NBA All Star Game between Team Giannis and Team LeBron at Vivint Arena on February 19, 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Jewel, who rose to fame in her early 20s, didn’t realize until much later that her mother, Lenedra Carroll was stealing from her.

“I woke up and realized she embezzled all of my money , over US$100 million,” the singer revealed during an episode of Verywell Mind podcast that aired this Monday. “I was 34 years old when I realized I’m US$3 million in debt, realize my mom stole it, realize everything I thought my mom was, isn’t what she was, it is a very difficult psychological thing to come to terms with.”

As she started investigating the truth, the now 48-year-old realized “that pretty much everything I formed my reality on was fiction.” The singer has been estranged from her mother since the early 2000s.

“I mean, it’s a complex issue, but my mom used to [be] this heroic figure. My mom and dad got divorced when I was eight, and we went to live with my dad,” Jewel told the host of the podcast, Amy Morin.

“Nobody told me it’s because my mom didn’t want to be a mom. She left us, and so my dad took over raising us. I didn’t know that at the time. I would hitchhike 500 miles to go see her. I’d show up on her doorstep. She was the opposite of my dad. My dad was this volatile alcoholic that hit me, very easy to identify [as a] ‘bad guy.’ My mom seemed like the opposite. She was calm, she was soft, she never yelled, obviously never hit me.”

The singer was in her early 20s when her immensely popular album ‘Pieces of You’ released. The album went on to sell over 12 million copies in the U.S. alone as of 2015, Entertainment Weekly notes. But her journey early on was far from easy. After moving out of her abusive home at the age of 16, Jewel was homeless for a year when she turned 18.

“Jewel did not further reveal when Carroll allegedly stole her money,” US Weekly reports. “Jewel’s mother has not publicly responded to the claims.”