All About JAY-Z's Parents, Gloria Carter and Adnis Reeves

JAY-Z was born to Gloria Carter and Adnis “AJ” Reeves on Dec. 4, 1969.

The Brooklyn native has a close bond with his mother, who raised him and his siblings after their father left when they were young. JAY-Z has opened up about his relationships with each of his parents in interviews, in addition to rapping about them in his songs.

In fact, the Grammy Award-winning artist released a song named after his father on his 13th studio album 4:44 in June 2017. The track is a letter to his father, who died from liver failure in June 2003.

JAY-Z has opened up about transitioning his feelings of resentment toward his estranged father to respect in the wake of his abandonment. He has also used his past hardships as a platform to help others who are going through the same experience he did.

"I would love for our generation and all the people that grew up without their parents, whether you knew them early on or not is to have that conversation so you could let that sort of anger go, because that’s the sort of anger that keeps you from love," JAY-Z said in a 2015 podcast.

"It makes you put up walls and you don’t let people get close to you, because you don’t ever want to feel that feeling of abandonment or that feeling of hurt again," he continued. "So without that context, just him leaving, I had this anger, you know, but when I slowly got to know why I could understand a bit of what happened to him."

Read on for everything to know about JAY-Z's parents, AJ and Gloria.

AJ and Gloria share four kids together

Gloria and AJ had four kids together: JAY-Z (né Shawn Corey Carter), Eric Carter, Michelle Carter and Andrea Carter. They were raised in Marcy Houses, a public housing project in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

JAY-Z was estranged from AJ most of his life

JAY-Z had a turbulent relationship with his father, who left his mom and siblings when he was 11 years old. Gloria, an investment company clerk at the time, was left to raise JAY-Z and his older siblings as a single parent.

AJ's departure from the family was hard on JAY-Z, who didn't see his father again until months before his death many years later. "Kids look up to they pop like Superman,” the musician told Rolling Stone for a 2005 profile published in The Book of Jay.

“Superman just left the crib? That’s traumatic s---," JAY-Z continued. "He was a good guy. It’s just that he didn’t handle the situation well. He handled it so bad that you forget all the good this guy did," he added. "The scorn, the resentment, all the feelings from that, as you see, I’m a grown-ass man, but it was still there with me.”

Furthermore, JAY-Z revealed that he "changed a lot" in the wake of his father's disappearance and "became more guarded" as a result. "I never wanted to be attached to something and get that taken away again," he said in the profile. "I never wanted to feel that feeling again [of being left]."

JAY-Z reconnected with AJ before he died

For years, JAY-Z didn't know the reason his father left his family and hadn't been in contact with him since he left. During an interview with Dream Hampton for The Black Book, published in 2006, Gloria revealed the truth behind AJ's departure.

“Jay’s uncle was stabbed in the chest during an unfair fight,” Hampton said. “And his father became consumed with desire for revenge... And he kinda never recovered from that.” JAY-Z added, “That made him a bitter, evil, different guy."

It wasn't until months before AJ's death that JAY-Z reconnected with his father for the first time, a reunion that was initiated by Gloria when she learned he didn't have much longer to live. Although AJ didn't show up at the first attempt to get together, he did the second time around.

“Me and my pop got to talk,” JAY-Z said in the Rolling Stone profile. “I got to let it go. I got to tell him everything I wanted to say. I just said what I felt," he recalled. "It wasn’t yelling and crying and drastic and dramatic. It was very adult and grown men, but it was tough."

JAY-Z helped his father in his final days, prior to his death from liver failure in June 2003, including finding him an apartment in Brooklyn near the hospital where AJ was being treated. “That’s the right thing to do as far as karma and everything,” he told the outlet.

AJ is the subject of a JAY-Z song

In June 2017, JAY-Z released "Adnis," a bonus cut featured on his 13th studio album 4:44. The track centers around the strained relationship the rapper had with his father. The song was released over a decade after his father's death, penned as a letter of respect to him following feelings of disdain.

“All my songs up until this point have been about anger with my dad,” JAY-Z recalled in his “Footnotes of Adnis" series. “As an adult looking back, now I have a different perspective of it. I started thinking, ‘Man, my dad married my mother at a time when everybody was leaving.’ He tried.”

JAY-Z raps in the song: "Started a good man, you married my mama // I was in her belly, you hurried that summer // She had two kids from a previous mister // One family, I don't believe in half-sisters // Never treated my brother like a step, Pop //Remembered the many lessons when we stepped out."

He continues in part: "Who would've thought I'd be the dad I never had // Be the husband I've become, usually nothing come from that // I forgive you as long as I live through the beautiful present of the past // I'm just thankful that I get all these gifts to unwrap."

The chorus repeats: "What was you preparing us — For?"

Gloria was JAY-Z's role model as a kid

When Oprah asked JAY-Z in 2009 who his "one positive Black role model" was growing up, he revealed it was his mom. "She worked two jobs and did whatever she had to do for us," he said in the interview.

In fact, he recalled the wise words his mom told him around age 20 that inspired him to pursue his musical passion. "I would make demos and then quit for six months," he explained. "I started to realize that I couldn't be successful until I let the street life go."

"My mom always taught me — you know, little boys listen to their moms too much — that whatever you put into something is what you're going to get out of it," JAY-Z continued. "I had to fully let go of what I was doing before for the music to be successful. That was a leap of faith for me. I said, 'I have to give this everything.'"

Gloria is CEO of the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund

JAY-Z and Gloria co-founded the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund (SCSF) in 2003. For the past 20 years, the foundation "has been committed to bridging the opportunity gap that exists across the education system," striving to help low-income students "overcome obstacles to success."

SCSF "has provided college scholarships for young people who have talent and drive but due to mitigating circumstances their grade point averages fall below the minimum to qualify for support at other foundations and institutions," reads the website.

Gloria currently serves as the CEO of the foundation, which was formed in response to Gloria's desire to build "something that would enhance the future of our young people."

Gloria married partner Roxanne in July 2023

Gloria married her longtime partner Roxanne Wiltshire in July 2023. The N.Y.C. wedding was star-studded, including JAY-Z, Beyoncé and other celebrity guests like Kelly Rowland, Tina Knowles-Lawson, Tyler Perry and Robin Roberts.

In 2017, JAY-Z opened up about his mother coming out to him as a lesbian on a track called "Smile," from his 13th studio album, 4:44.

"Mama had four kids, but she's a lesbian/Had to pretend so long that she's a thespian/Had to hide in the closet, so she medicate/Society shame and the pain was too much to take," the Grammy winner rapped in the song.

"Cried tears of joy when you fell in love/Don't matter to me if it's a him or her/I just wanna see you smile through all the hate/Marie Antoinette, baby, let 'em eat cake," JAY-Z continued.

JAY-Z later opened up about his mother coming out to him during an appearance on David Letterman’s Netflix series in 2018. "Imagine having to live your life as someone else and you think you're protecting your kids," he explained on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. "For her to sit in front of me and tell me 'I think I love someone,' I really cried... I cried because I was so happy for her that she was free."

Gloria and Roxanne have been in a longtime relationship

While it's unclear exactly how and when Carter and Wiltshire met, it can be assumed their relationship dates back to at least 2019 when they stepped out alongside each other at the Shawn Carter Foundation Gala in November that year.

Wiltshire was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. She eventually moved to the United States and pursued a higher education, graduating from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and The Rutgers School of Law-Newark in New Jersey.

The proud mom of two is the youngest of three sisters, though lost her eldest Wendy Ann to her "valiant battle" against metastatic breast cancer in December 2020. In her name, Roxanne founded The Wiltshire Foundation.

The charitable and philanthropic organization's mission — of which Roxanne is the President — "aims to address inequities by shedding light on academic, environmental, financial, health, judicial and social barriers, through literacy." Furthermore, The Wiltshire Foundation "is dedicated to serving any and all underrepresented, disenfranchised or marginalized populations."

Gloria and Roxanne made their red carpet debut as newlyweds

Gloria and her wife Roxanne attended their first red carpet as newlyweds when they attended the Shawn Carter Foundation's 20th Anniversary Black Tie Gala on July 14. They wore coordinating outfits and posed for photographs with one another at the event.

Others in attendance at the exclusive gala at Pier Sixty in NYC included JAY-Z, DJ Khaled, Tinashe, Rudy Gay, Lil Uzi Vert, Meek Mill and Robert Kraft.