Eminem wanted to give his children more than things

“Do you want to miss everything?” Eminem remembered asking himself. In the documentary Stans, he described watching a recording of Hailie’s first guitar recital, which he had missed after his 2007 overdose. He cried.¹⁰

He had wanted to give his family love and material security. “But I can’t just buy them things,” he said. He had to be there.²¹

Hailie is Eminem’s daughter with Kim Scott. He also adopted Alaina, whose mother was Kim’s sister Dawn, and Stevie, Kim’s child from another relationship. Stevie is nonbinary. His younger brother Nate came to live with him as a teenager, too.^{6, 16}

Nate later remembered learning songwriting and rhyme structure from his older brother. Hailie came to think of Nate, who had moved in as a teenager, as more of a brother than an uncle.^{16, 17}

Putting Dad on the schedule

For him, fatherhood included “Helping them with homework when you can”—even when, he admitted, “They’re already way smarter than me.”²³

In 2002, he described rearranging his work so he could be there when six-year-old Hailie needed him. Sometimes she wanted to come to the studio or on tour. He enjoyed having her alongside him, curious about where he went and what he did. He also admitted that balancing the two lives could be hard.⁴

Making 8 Mile and two albums had left him feeling he was neglecting home. He wanted to record locally and get back to his children at night.²¹

When Hailie listened to his recordings in the car, he played cleaner versions he had prepared for her. She also liked some of the pop stars he mocked in his own music. He accepted that she enjoyed their songs, even when her tastes differed from the opinions he expressed as a performer.⁴

In 2010, Eminem said he did not swear at home. He distinguished the language of his performances from his role as a parent.¹⁵

He described school runs, plays and field trips. Teachers introduced him as Hailie’s father. He had read two books to her class.²¹

While Eminem worked during a trip to Florida, he arranged a limousine to take Hailie and a childhood friend to Disney World for a princess tea party. Dresses were waiting for them when they arrived. The two friends remembered being thrilled by the outing; only as adults did they understand how unusual the arrangements had been. Bringing a friend along had been part of their childhood together: the friend also remembered being invited onto a tour bus so casually that she first had to ask what one was.³

Loving them did not make him well

“I don’t want to miss anything else,” he said after getting sober.²²

He recalled waking in hospital after the overdose, not realizing it was Christmas, then wanting to telephone his children and reassure them. He had left hospital too early, he said. Another hospital visit followed, then a relapse. He understood that he needed help to survive.²²

Even while answering questions about that night, he withheld details involving his children. He could describe his own collapse without giving an interviewer every part of their experience.²²

As an adult, Hailie said her parents had shielded her from how serious the difficulties at home had been. Watching childhood footage in her father’s later music videos was frightening because she now understood more of what had been happening around her. She liked seeing those old family moments, but the setting made them painful to watch.^{9, 19}

What belonged to the children

During Kim’s legal troubles, he wanted Hailie and Alaina to understand that they were not to blame. He put the reassurance this way: “it’s not because she doesn’t love you. She loves you, but she’s sick right now.” He also said he and Kim needed to respect each other and keep the children out of their disputes.²¹

He remembered a mall visit with young Hailie when the crowd waiting outside each store kept growing. Eventually he picked her up and hurried toward the exit, with people following them. Years later, he asked her about that frightening outing. She did not remember it.⁵

After recording with Hailie, he was reconsidering putting her on more songs. His fame had been his choice, he said; the children had not chosen it. He wanted to preserve freedoms they could still enjoy.²¹

His public work pulled in the other direction. He released songs attacking women in his family, including imagined violence against Kim. At home, Eminem said he wanted to keep Hailie out of her parents’ disputes. On records, he had made those disputes part of his work, available far beyond the walls of their house.¹¹

Hailie later recognized another tension he had faced. As a new mother in 2025, she described understanding his desire to protect the children’s privacy while also being proud and wanting to celebrate them. The impulse to share and the impulse to shelter were both familiar to her.²

What he counted as an accomplishment

In 2020, Eminem identified what made him proudest: “being able to raise kids.” He spoke about Hailie’s education and about the other children he had helped raise.⁸

When Hailie’s partner, Evan, wanted to speak to Eminem before proposing, he waited for a private moment during her birthday celebration. Eminem went downstairs to fetch her cake, and Evan followed him to ask for his blessing. Hailie had not realized the conversation was taking place in the middle of her party.¹³

At Alaina’s wedding in 2023, Eminem walked her down an eighty-foot aisle patterned in black and white. Hailie was her maid of honor, and Nate performed at the reception. Alaina had planned the celebration herself and credited her father with making it possible. She was matter-of-fact about his being there: “He wasn’t going to miss that.”⁷

The following year, he danced with Hailie at her wedding to Evan. Their father-daughter dance took place before the reception began.¹⁸

Still arranging the surprise

In 2024, Hailie had a surprise for him: a jersey announcing that he would be a grandfather, followed by ultrasound photographs. At first he worried that he had no present to give her in return. Then he thought the jersey was teasing him about his age. The ultrasound photographs made him understand what she was telling him.^{14, 20, 12}

Later, when relatives arrived to watch a Lions game, he helped Hailie surprise them, too. He hid the jersey beneath a jacket, then opened it to reveal the news. Some relatives still did not understand, so Hailie brought out the ultrasound picture again.¹⁴

For Hailie’s thirtieth birthday, Eminem arranged for her friends to join a family trip to a Lions game. She expected the usual outing with her family. When she walked out to board the bus, her friends were waiting in party hats. One wore the Lions vest Hailie had given her the day before; Hailie had bought a matching one for herself. Her father had arranged for them to go to the game together.¹