Actress, singer, and former Miss USA Vanessa Williams welcomed her daughter, Jillian Hervey of Lion Babe, to motherhood following the birth of her first grandchild.
Williams took to Instagram to share her excitement and express her support for her daughter on Jan. 9.
“So proud to welcome my beautiful daughter @lionbabe into the wonderful, challenging and most rewarding role in life …motherhood,” she wrote in the caption. “I’m always here to support, advise and babysit at any moment. And of course the amazing father @astroraw who has been by Jillian’s side since the beginning with support, love and endless creativity.”
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Hervey had her first child with bandmember Lucas Goodman back in December. They had a son named Sunny Rise Goodman.
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In January, she opened up to Essence Magazine about why she kept her relationship and pregnancy private.
“My personal life, like my creative life is sacred, but coming from the upbringing I have had, I never wanted to overshare. Lucas and I have always valued our privacy and, up until this point, have never spoken of our relationship,” she said.
She continued saying she didn’t plan to announce her bun in the oven until she felt the time was right.
“I also think pregnancy always invites opinions, and as soon as I found out, I knew that I had a lot of thoughts of my own about what was going on, and didn’t want to add additional pressure to what I was already creating in my own mind,” she said. “Our LION BABE world does feel like a family though, so that is why it now feels appropriate. This is a huge milestone filled with love in our lives, and we didn’t want to start another year of creating, without our fans, community and supporters knowing that this miracle had just occurred.”
Williams also kept the secret, as she hadn’t posted about Hervey’s pregnancy on social media until this year.
Recently, the 58-year-old Hollywood star performed at McCullam Theatre in Palm Desert, Calif., on Jan. 22. In an interview with Desert Sun, she discussed her process of picking concert songs and revealed some of the racism she dealt with when she was crowned Miss America in 1984.
“I was only 2 years old when The Voting Rights Act passed. I was crowned Miss America and I thought, it’s 20 years later, we’ve made some progress,” she said. “But then I’m confronted with severe hate and death threats because of who I was as a representative of Blackness in America. And now, it’s still the same. The discord is still palpable.”
On a lighter note, Williams expressed how much she enjoyed being an entertainer.
“I love doing lots of different things. It’s what energizes me.”
