*Over 30 years ago iconic singer and Broadway actress Melba Moore, now 77, was homeless, heartbroken and had her cherished daughter taken away from her. But she didn’t let it defeat her and now after decades of work is finally getting her Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2023.
The songstress and Tony Award-winning actress sits down with iheart Radio personality and EURweb.com Spotlight host Jazmyn ‘Jaz’ Summers to share her journey revealing that she is penning a book about her tumultuous life and hopes the Walk of Fame star will create interest.
“The Star is important to me because it’s important to people,” she shares with EURweb Spotlight.  People are really impressed with that Star. I guess because it’s permanent.”
She hopes the book will inspire people to overcome their trials and tribulations and not give up. A timely subject with the recent suicide of 40-year-old dancer tWitch and others.
OTHER NEWS ON EURWEB: Lifetime Announces Another Installment of ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Docuseries | Trailer
“Never be afraid to tell your story. I survived by the grace of God. Every pitfall made me stronger. My story is so graphic and painful but I’ll tell you one thing. Getting up all these times makes you cute too. I’ve been walking a lot of steps trying to get up, get up in life. I have some pretty legs now,” she jokes.
In 1978, when Melba was on tour with her then-husband Charles Huggins and newborn baby she told the “New York Times” she wanted to have many children, maybe settle down on a farm in the South one day, far from the limelight. But life didn’t turn out that way.
Many remember that in 1991, a bitter divorce left her, once worth close to $20 million dollars, impoverished with little more than $600 and a welfare check. She had been married to Charles Huggins, also her partner and business manager, for over 18 years.
“He divorced me surreptitiously so he could get everything, even my daughter. My career was destroyed and stolen. It left me homeless. I couldn’t afford attorneys. I thought I was destroyed. My ability to even sing a song was taken.”
She considered suicide but “I had to let go and put myself in God’s hands,” she tells Jaz.
Melba recounts how she couldn’t even afford bus fare and finally ended up on welfare, was evicted, and lost custody of her beloved daughter Melba Charli. During much of their 18-year marriage, Moore says Huggins worked with the couple’s bookkeeper, secretly using her name to get bank loans and property, and to top it off her ex filed a defamation lawsuit against her claiming she’d defamed his character when she accused him of abuse throughout their marriage.
“He even found a way to sign my name to the divorce papers without me knowing.”
Later, Huggins was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. He was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2015 accused of running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
Eventually, she and her daughter Charli were able to build a beautiful relationship.
“It’s a really heroic, wonderful, stupendous thing because I had to steal her back,” Moore says.
Her new album “Imagine,” released earlier this year, is a result of that reunion, She worked with her daughter, and even her ex-husband Charles, and his brother and it topped the UK charts bringing her newfound success,
At first, she said there was no way she could work with her ex.
“I forgot I was saved. I’m just thinking about how are we going to do an album. Because I don’t even talk to you. And I don’t let you talk to me.”
But their daughter pushed.
“She was all that was left of the relationship (with him). She was bringing me these songs and I’m saying, I ain’t gonna do nothing with that man over there. But eventually, I thought this is the father of my daughter. What I feel is so important, is so powerful and you’ll hear it in the album is an incredible thing that happens to people if they can somehow say let it go. Unforgiveness can take a hold of us. It chokes us to death. The album became a family affair because I had to forgive my husband.”
Her baby girl, now 45, is the executive producer on the project.
“It’s all about the real sweetness of R&B music. But of course, we always get a boom boom underneath. The message of the whole album is peace, love, and taking care of one another. Say thank you for each other’s company. Remember how Covid has done us? It took us away from each other and we were forced to stay away and we lost millions of lives. So appreciating each other is really important”
She added: “God is on the throne and I have to keep going. When things have been done to you that not only hurt you, they destroyed you. Destroyed the family. Every time you confront these things and have to rebuild. if you are not able to find the Lord in your life so he can come in between all that, you are not gonna get back. I’ve had about three or four other people I had to forgive.”
One of them was actor, singer, and one of the major loves of her life, heartthrob Clifton Davis, who she was with for four years. Melba shares he not only mistreated her but at the time was dealing with drug addiction.
“It was terrible because our romance and our love lives were tied up with our careers. Neither one of us really had agents. We were just both out there. His career was just starting. He was in the chorus of “Hello Dolly.” You can’t imagine what kind of breakout it was for Black people in the legitimate theater then. There was nothing in the theater for anybody Black to come see. And we had the TV show together. He hurt me, mistreated me, cheated on me and we separated. We both lost the TV show. Both of us lost our careers.”
But Melba always rises and last August, she received the Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement Award at Morehouse College in Atlanta, honoring her career. She also received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for her commitment to improvement within urban communities. And next year she joins Lenny Kravitz, Sheila E., Martin Lawrence, Ludacris, and others to receive her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
While there’s no special man in her life right now, she is open to dating and what’s ahead. Watch out for her book and most importantly says Melba, “I’m continuing to live the life I love. It’s a mark of pride that I have made it this far. And look how good I’m looking. I’m just saying keep joy, keep joy. ”
You can catch the full conversation in the video immediately above. And please don’t forget to subscribe to Jazmyn Summers’ youtube. Â
Interview/article by Jazmyn Summers. Follow her @jaztalk1 on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
