*R&B singer Mario says losing his mother, Shawntia Hardaway, in 2017 unexpectedly opened the door to rebuilding a relationship with the father who had largely been absent from his life.
During an appearance on “Way Up with Angela Yee,” Mario reflected on growing up without his father and the complicated process of forgiveness. The turning point, he said, came during one of the most painful moments of his life: his mother’s funeral.
“It was hard for me because you don’t know what you’re missing if you never had it,” Mario said, according to Complex.
Then came the moment he couldn’t ignore.
One Hug Changed the Relationship
As his mother’s casket was closing, Mario realized that the father who hadn’t been there for much of his childhood was suddenly the person whose presence he needed.
Scroll to continue reading
“It wasn’t until my mother’s funeral that I actually felt like, ‘Damn,’” he recalled. “He was the only person in that moment when her casket was closing that could console me.”
Mario described the connection as something deeper than their complicated history.
“Even though he wasn’t in my life, it was a spiritual thing,” he said. “He was the only person that could hug me and it felt like, ‘Yo, you’re not alone. You did everything you could.’”
That embrace changed his thinking about the relationship — and about how much time they might have left to repair it.
“In that moment I was like, ‘Yo, I got to rekindle this relationship because I got one parent left,’” Mario said. “So that’s when, for me, it shifted.”
Mario Spent Years Trying to Save His Mother
Hardaway’s struggles with addiction were never a secret in Mario’s life or career.
When she died in June 2017, EURweb reported that Mario announced the loss with an emotional message: “Your soul lives forever beside mine.”
A decade earlier, Mario had allowed cameras into one of the most difficult parts of his family life for the 2007 MTV documentary “I Won’t Love You to Death: The Story of Mario and His Mom.” The project followed his efforts to help Hardaway overcome addiction.
EURweb later revisited how deeply that experience affected him. Mario spent years trying to help his mother through treatment and relapses while learning that he could not control another person’s recovery.
Her death left him carrying both grief and the emotional weight of everything he’d tried to do.
And yet, at her funeral, the loss also created an unexpected connection with his surviving parent.
Grief Gave Mario a Different Choice
Mario’s story isn’t a tidy tale about an absent father suddenly erasing years of hurt. His own words make clear that the relationship had been missing for much of his life.
What changed was his willingness to see what might still be possible.
The father who hadn’t been there became the person who could comfort him when his mother’s casket closed. For Mario, that was enough to reconsider what their relationship could become.
He couldn’t change the childhood they didn’t share. He couldn’t bring his mother back.
But in one of the darkest moments of his life, Mario realized he still had one parent left — and decided he didn’t want to lose that relationship, too.
(If You Like/Appreciate This EURweb Story, Please SHARE it!)
RELATED NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: The Real Deal and Sad Truths About R&B Singer Mario’s Life / VIDEO
We Publish Breaking News 24/7. Don’t Miss Out! Sign up for our Free daily newsletter HERE.
