D.L. Hughley’s eldest daughter, Ryan Shepard, is opening up about the “tumultuous” relationship she used to have with her famous dad.
The proud mother took to Instagram March 10 to share a candid video clip with Hughley and her daughter Nola. In the caption, Shepard got candid about her scarred history with her father and how her daughter helped mend their broken relationship.
“I’ve never publicly spoken about the fact that until very recently, my dad and I had a fairly tumultuous relationship,” she wrote.
“I thought I’d gotten myself to a place where I decided that I’d stop getting my hopes up that things would ever get better and just accepted what was.”
But, despite their rocky past, Shepard shared how her daughter helped rebuild their father-daughter bond.
“And then, everything changed,” she continued. “Initially, we forged a deeper connection over Nola. But then, my dad stopped calling just to see her and started calling to check on me. We began having the most amazing conversations about anything, everything really.”
Now, through Hughley being a present grandfather to Nola, Shepard is finding healing for scars from her own childhood.
“I’m a late- blooming daddy’s girl and watching the relationship grow between Him (lol) and Nola keeps healing parts of the little girl in me that I thought I’d given up on,” she added.
“If you’ve found yourself in a difficult relationship with a parent, know that even if you can’t see it, it can get better.”
Last year, Shepard came to
Hughley’s defense during his messy social media war with fellow comedian Mo’Nique. Shepard entered the chat after Mo’Nique called out Hughley’s past admission of not believing his daughter when she told him she had been sexually assaulted.“Hi @therealmoworldwide I’m Ryan Nicole Shepard (D.L. Hughley and LaDonna Hughley’s eldest daughter),” Shepard wrote in the comments section of Mo’Nique’s since-deleted post.
“You’ve now publicly disrespected my mother—who I love and care for very much—and my baby sister—who I love and care for very much to get back at my father—who I love, respect and care for very much.”
Nice to see D.L. Hughley and Ryan Shepard putting pride aside to put family first.