Kirk Franklin and his estranged son Kerrion’s mother, Shawn Ewing, are speaking out on their son’s behavior this past weekend. Kerrion Franklin, 33, took to Instagram to expose his father with a profanity-laced video clip of a conversation between the two and a third party, but his plan seemed to backfire. A majority of social media, including Ricky Smiley and Steve Harvey, stood by the iconic gospel singer while trashing Kerrion. Ewing is now coming forward to speak out amid all the drama.
The “Melodies From Heaven” singer appeared on the Tamron Hall show alongside his wife, Tammy Franklin, to offer some insight on their heated exchange. “Early on, Tammy, Shawn [Ewing] and myself, we started to realize that there needed to be some deeper help with things that was happening with our son and so when he was a teenager, we started him in therapy and counseling and we’ve had him in and out of counseling and therapy for over 20 years, and as Kerrion became a grown man, when he became a grown man, his disrespect became more aggressive,” Franklin shared.
“So you know this is them that we’ve been trying to rally for years to try to help and like I said now that he’s about to be 33 as a grown man the relationship at times can become very agitated and very frustrated…but I’m not going to stop trying to help, you know, he’s my son. He’s my son, he’s my firstborn, and I never want him to feel what I felt not having a father. So even though it gets tense and tight when he calls from time to time I will answer his call, even though I expect it to sometimes kind of derail. It’s important for me because what if that call is the call that things change. So I never know. And I never want to give up.”
Separately, Shawn Ewing appeared on Ericka Fusilier English’s “The Heart Beat” podcast where she’s opening up on the situation publicly for the first time. Stating that Kerrion is still her baby. “We’re here because some private information was leaked and Kirk kind of lost his cool. We talk about cancel culture and I was like, I can’t leave Kirk out here by himself on this one,” said Ewing. “I’m not saying that my son is not hurting from us being teenage parents. I’m not saying my son doesn’t have a testimony. But what I am saying is that you were not abandoned.
Kerrion’s mother added, “No one abdicated their responsibility towards you. You are loved, Kerrion Franklin. We support you then. We support you now. We support you tomorrow, but there’s a way to deal with it. All we’ve tried to do is work through the issue, get our son to a point of being a productive citizen in society as well as having a good life. But things didn’t go that way and that’s okay because families go through things. But we don’t get to use a part of audio without going through the true history of counseling, therapy, godly counsel.”
Kerrion has been hinting at an upcoming tell-all interview of his own, but no information has been given at this time. In the meantime, we hope that the relationship between the Franklins can be repaired.