Betty Kresin, Eminem’s maternal grandmother, married at age 14. She had six children from 3 different marriages.

She married Bob Nelson for the first time. She gave birth to their daughter Debbie in 1955. They both moved to Warren, Michigan, to be closer to Betty’s stepmother. Despite the problems the couple experienced, she gave Bob two more children, Todd and Steven. They divorced in the early 1960s and Betty returned to her hometown, St Joseph, where she lived. she met Ron Gilpin, her second husband. One of them is Betti Schmitt (Eminem’s aunt and Debbie’s half-sister), who is still in contact and on good terms with Eminem. Ron Gilpin was an alcoholic who used to beat up his entire family. Violence was part of his daily life. Ron left his family in 1968 and dramas surrounded Betty’s family. In 1991, Todd Nelson killed his brother-in-law, Mike Harris in a self-defense case. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. Betty’s sixth child from a third marriage, Ronnie Polkingharn, was Eminem’s closest uncle and friend. He committed suicide in 1991.

Eminem grew up for a time in his grandmother’s house. She talks about her harsh living conditions in Detroit:

“It was a poor school and they wanted his shoes. He was one of the only white children to attend this segregated school. And once her shoes were removed and she had to go home in a snowstorm without shoes. But the story that people keep asking me – “I was unconscious and almost died and all these doctors …”, now I don’t know anything about this and I’m his grandmother. “

People should think twice about calling Marshall a racist.

Betty was mad at Marshall because he never attended Ronnie’s funeral. In fact, Marshall became depressed and swallowed a bottle of Tylenol and survived another suicide attempt. He couldn’t go to Ronnie’s funeral, his pain was too great.

“I was a little bitter that he wrote about my dead son, because the last five years of my deceased son, Marshall hadn’t even seen him. Marshall, Eminem, and my son Ronnie were very close. He idolized Ronnie and Ronnie him. He loved. He didn’t even come to Ronnie’s funeral and never put the first flower on Ronnie’s grave. He does nothing, he won’t go near the grave. The chain Marshall wears around his neck, the nameplate … that was from Ronnie. I gave him the nameplate, he makes duplicates, he sells them now, and that really broke my heart because this is something sacred to me that I gave the boy the garbage, make it up to your family, the life is too short. “

Marshall had a good relationship with his grandmother until he wanted to use Ronnie’s voice on tape. He intended to do this as a tribute to his deceased uncle, but Betty thought it was disrespectful towards her son. In 2002, the two were reconciled.

Betty Kresin is writing a book about her grandson called “The Tie That Binds.”

Betty says that she is proud of her grandson and that she is on his side.