Gladys Knight is considering legal options after her son, Shanga Hankerson, branded her tour schedule ‘detrimental’ to her health.
The 81-year-old legend is set to resume her Queens Tour in the US next month and has insisted she is ‘healthy and happy’ despite her son’s claims.
Hankerson, 49, alleged that Knight’s husband William McDowell — who is 33 years her junior — was mentally and financially abusing her.
He told The Shade Room: ‘I don’t want my mom out on tour on a tour bus wondering where she’s at.’
After this, Hankerson claimed he had filed a complaint with North Carolina’s Department of Human Services and that an investigation is underway.
Knight hit back at this and reassured worried fans that her health and the tour had been ‘misrepresented’.
‘I want my fans and those concerned to rest assured I am doing very well for someone who has been on stage for three quarters of a century, hard to believe, right?’ she told The Independent.
‘I’m healthy and happy and visiting friends and family these last few months. I’m excited to get back on the road with my sisters and on stage with The Queens Tour. See you soon.’
She told People she had been enjoying her time touring and was ‘excited’ to get back on the road for the autumn dates.
However, Hankerson claimed that her memory is becoming a problem and that this touring is ‘detrimental’ to his mother.
‘I did my best to give [McDowell] the space to play the role of husband and do what was in my mom’s best interest, and he has not done that,’ he alleged.
‘Why is she working? Why is she in this situation where she’s being made to believe that she has to work like this? That’s really my issue with it.’
The disagreement could escalate into a lawsuit as Knight’s publicist said the James Bond singer was looking into ‘any and all legal remedies’ for his ‘defamatory comments’.
They also alleged that he ‘has had no substantial contact with her’.
Hankerson retorted that he is ‘absolutely’ ready to take this to court to make sure he can ‘really take care’ of his mother.
‘This has nothing to do with money for me,’ he insisted. ‘I’m trying to get her to stop working.’
Knight and McDowell married in 2001 after three months of dating but had known each other for around a decade.
After releasing some tracks together, the couple regularly appear on red carpets together, including when she was awarded at the Kennedy Centre Honours, AMAs, Billboard Music Awards and BET Awards.
Knight previously stated to Closer that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren ‘love [McDowell] to death’.
She is mum to three children, having welcomed Jimmy and Kenya in the early 60s with first husband James Newman, who she split with in 1973.
Then she married Barry Hankerson, who is Shanga’s father, the following year, but they broke up in 1979.
Knight, known for hits like I Heard It Through the Grapevine and Midnight Train to Georgia, is touring throughout this year with Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle and Stephanie Mills.
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