Taraji P. Henson is opening about the murder of her son's father.
During the Wednesday, Jan. 6 episode of the actress' new Facebook Watch series Peace of Mind With Taraji, the Golden Globe winner candidly spoke about the moment she decided to go to the therapy with her now 26-year-old son Marcell Johnson.
"My son's father was suddenly taken, murdered, when he was nine, and I didn't know how to tell him that. I couldn't tell him he was murdered, so I told him he died in an accident," she explained to her co-hosts, meditation teacher Tracie Jade Jenkins and therapist Sierra Hilsman. "Later on in life he found out and he came back to me and was like, 'Why didn't you tell me my daddy was murdered?' And so then we had to get therapy."
The 50-year-old Hidden Figures star then posed the question to Sierra as to what is the best way to have sensitive conversations with young children.
The mental health professional replied, "I would definitely say use age-appropriate language, explaining sometimes there are situations where people do evil things to other people. In this situation, somebody killed your father."
The Howard University alum went on to confess, "I didn't have the balls. I didn't. I couldn't—it wouldn't come out."
She then began to break down to tears as she recalled reading the news in the newspaper "And I didn't know how to tell him he was stabbed to death," Taraji recalled. "And I just didn't have the words. I didn't know how to tell a 9-year-old."