The music legend is firing again after her son, Shanga Hankerson, accused her husband, William McDowell, of elder abuse. Knight calls the claims false, insisting she is wholesome and in good fingers, making it clear she is not anybody’s sufferer.

Gladys Knight has been married to William McDowell for over 20 years since their personal 2001 wedding ceremony. 

Knight needs followers to know she is doing simply wonderful. In her personal phrases, “I need my followers and people involved to relaxation assured I’m doing very nicely for somebody who has been on stage for 3 quarters of a century, arduous to imagine, proper?”

Knight advised The Put up that experiences about her well being and her means to carry out have been blown out of proportion. As a substitute, she says she has been having fun with time with household and is raring to get again in entrance of audiences. 

“I am excited to get again on the highway with my sisters and on stage with The Queens Tour. See you quickly,” she stated. Her representatives additionally spoke up, pushing again on the accusations.

Based on The Every day Mail, they acknowledged that Hankerson has had “no substantial contact together with her” and referred to as his claims “unfounded.”

They defined that Knight has been off tour since June however is gearing as much as hit the stage once more in September. Within the meantime, her crew says they’re weighing authorized motion over what they contemplate “defamatory feedback.”

Knight’s assertion got here after Hankerson claimed he had been lower off from talking to his mom, going so far as to contact the Division of Human Companies for assist.

Based on The Shade Room, he alleges McDowell, who later turned her supervisor, is exploiting her by retaining her on stage regardless of what Hankerson describes as indicators of cognitive decline.

The 48-year-old advised reporter Justin Carter that his relationship with Knight has grown strained through the years, accusing McDowell of interfering. Hankerson acknowledged:

“Not realizing the place she is, not realizing the place William is, is a giant [trigger] for her, and that is my largest difficulty as a result of he manipulates that to the fullest and never in a great way… She’s being made to suppose that she must work.”

He pointed to adjustments in his mom’s persona and recalled one efficiency the place she “zoned out” till a background singer stepped in, claiming that even the teleprompters needed to be rewound to assist her keep on monitor.

Whereas he has been by her facet, supporting each her private life and her music profession, William McDowell will not be her husband. Based on PEOPLE, Knight married McDowell in 2001 after three earlier marriages.

She first wed James “Jimmy” Newman in 1960, with whom she had two kids. In 1974, she married Barry Hankerson and welcomed a son two years later. Knight’s third marriage was to motivational speaker Les Brown within the Nineties, although it resulted in 1997.

McDowell, raised in Canton, North Carolina, initially constructed a profession as a company marketing consultant earlier than connecting with Knight. Their partnership finally grew past marriage, as he started collaborating on her music and becoming a member of her on the highway.

Other than consulting, McDowell is a broadcast creator, co-writing the 2021 ebook “The One: How you can Develop and Thrive as a One Whereas Feeding Your Soul and Impacting Others.” He has additionally pursued his musical tasks, releasing the albums “Bending of Timber” in 2011 and “Excellent Imaginative and prescient 2020” in 2021.

The couple has been married for greater than 20 years, and their bond stays as robust as ever. The 2, who tied the knot in 2001, reportedly dated for simply three months, although they’d first crossed paths a decade earlier.

They’ve since constructed a wedding rooted in religion and dedication. Chatting with Nearer in 2022, Knight shared that their relationship thrives as a result of they put God on the middle of all the things. “You must at all times know that the Lord goes to make a manner… That is how we get by means of,” she defined.

After they marked their twenty third anniversary in April 2024, McDowell posted a touching video collage on social media. “This practice simply retains shifting,” he wrote, reflecting on their journey collectively and crediting religion for carrying them by means of challenges.

Past their marriage, the lovebirds have made an impression of their neighborhood. They launched the Reynolds Excessive College Basis in Fairview, North Carolina.