Megan Thee Stallion Recalls Removing Mom Holly from Life Support: 'She Wouldn't Have Wanted to Stay Like This'

• Megan Thee Stallion's mom Holly Thomas died of a brain tumor in 2019
• The rapper talks about her loss in her new Prime Video documentary Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Own Words
• Megan says she had to make the difficult decision to pull the plug after her mother was declared brain dead

Megan Thee Stallion has long been open about the pain she faced following the 2019 death of her beloved mother — and in her new Prime Video documentary, she pulls back the curtain on that heartbreak even further.

Megan, 29, lost her mom Holly Thomas to a brain tumor in March 2019. In her new film Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words (streaming now), the star recalls the time Thomas, 47, began having “back-to-back seizures,” leaving Megan “in shambles.”

“They had to put her under. She was just brain dead,” Megan says in the documentary, which features poignant animation for some sequences, including her mother's death. “So I stayed up there every day. I was spending the night at the hospital. I just was praying that she could shake back from it.”

Unfortunately for the “Mamushi” singer, Thomas was not able to rebound from her health woes.

“Once I realized she wasn't coming back, I was just like, 'Damn, I can't keep her like this.' Because I know she wouldn't have wanted to stay like this," Megan recalls through tears. "So I had to make the decision to pull the plug, and she just passed the next day."

Despite her heartbreak, Megan (née Megan Pete) returned to the stage just three weeks later, knowing Thomas would not have wanted her to stay at home, sad.

"Ya'll know that 2019 has been really tough for me. I don't wanna cancel none of my shows, and I didn't want to stop going, because that's not what my mama would want me to do," she says from the stage in a documentary clip. "She was my number one fan, through all the ass-shakin' and cussin'."

Even so, it was difficult for Megan — who lost her father Joseph Pete Jr. when she was in ninth grade — to forge ahead without her biggest source of support.

“When my mama passed away, I think I really forgot who I was and I lost a lot of confidence," she says. "I was so used to my mama telling me what to do and when life started getting crazy I didn’t have her."

At the documentary’s Los Angeles premiere on Wednesday, Oct. 30, Megan gave Thomas — who also performed as a rapper, under the name Holly-Wood — a shoutout in a special speech.

“I wouldn't be the woman I am today without Holly Thomas,” she told the crowd. “So mommy, I love you.” 

Megan has spoken proudly of her mother at past events, including when she was honored with the 2021 Glamour Woman of the Year Award.

"I am truly humbled to be in such incredible company," she said while accepting her award, as tears streamed down her face. "I really want to thank my mom. I want to thank my mom because she taught me how to be the woman that I am."

The Grammy winner praised Thomas as her “best friend, my manager," and her "everything," and said, "I know she’s proud of me today.” Megan also revealed that it was because of her mother that she was motivated to graduate from Texas Southern University in December 2021 with a degree in health administration.

“[My mom and late great-grandmother] filled me with self-love and determination,” she said. “Because of them, I never felt unworthy of my success and my womanhood. Because of them, I've learned to be competitive with myself and that other women don't need to lose for me to win."

Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words follows the star’s journey “on the road to stardom as she tenaciously navigates fame, grief, pressure and success,” according to a synopsis. “The documentary unpacks Megan’s most vulnerable moments in a powerful way that allows fans to meet the real Megan Pete.”