Wanda Durant Considered Suicide After Birth of Second Son Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant is the man he is today largely thanks to his mother, Wanda Durant, who has supported him every step of the way. It wasn’t easy for Wanda to raise Kevin and his elder brother, Tony, as a single mother. During an appearance on the Raising Fame podcast, she spoke on her internal struggles following the birth of her second son.

“To be quite honest, that was a scary day,” Wanda said. “I wasn’t expecting a little boy because I wanted a girl since I already had an older son. But it was a scary day because I knew my job was hard; I had two young men, two babies that I had to raise to be young men.”

Co-host Sonya Curry, Stephen Curry’s mother, asked who the baby looked like, and Wanda said he was the spitting image of his father, Wayne Pratt.

“I was excited. I was scared. I didn’t know what our lives would be,” Wanda stated. “Our marriage was a little rocky at the time. We were young and trying to make it, and so I didn’t know what to expect. I really didn’t know what motherhood was all about.”

Co-host Lucille O’Neal, Shaquille O’Neal’s mother, wondered if Wanda had a plan on how she’d raise her children. The 57-year-old admitted she didn’t.

“I did not have a plan,” Wanda replied. “I just knew that I had these two little people that I was responsible for. God, I don’t want to cry. But to be quite honest with you, my sons were my saving grace. They saved my life.”

“I know that there are maybe mothers out there who don’t know the direction of their lives, and they have the responsibility of children in their hands,” Wanda continued. “Just don’t quit. Because I wanted to quit, but I knew there would be no one on this Earth that would take care of my sons the way that I did.”

“And so people say, well, what did you sacrifice? And to be quite honest, I sacrificed my suicide,” Wanda added. “It still hurts to this day that I was in a place because I didn’t see a future for me, that I didn’t want to be here anymore. But I knew I had to stay for my children, and so that’s what I decided to do. And I didn’t have a plan; I just knew I had to stay.”

One can understand why Wanda felt so pessimistic about the future at the time. Her now-former husband, Wayne Pratt, deserted the family when Kevin was an infant, and the two eventually got a divorce.

Wanda faced the daunting task of raising two boys on her own. While she thought of giving up, they ended up being the reason she didn’t take that drastic step. She did everything she could for the two boys, and it’s safe to say they greatly appreciate her efforts. This was made evident to the world by Durant during his famous 2014 MVP acceptance speech, where he called Wanda “the real MVP.”

Following Wanda’s admission, Sonya Curry shared during the same episode that she was going to get an abortion when she was pregnant with Stephen Curry.

“In my situation, I had chosen, at 19, to have an abortion,” Sonya said. “And then conceiving Stephen two years later and sitting in a parking lot, going to have an abortion and not have him. And in that moment, God saying to me, ‘You’re not doing it.'”

The basketball world as we know it today would have been so different had Sonya taken that step. It would have taken a lot of courage on her part to change her mind, and to her credit, she then devoted her life to making sure Stephen grew up in a loving and caring environment. Sonya even ended up having two more children after him, Seth and Sydel.

Source: Fadeaway World