She’s an extremely talented singer and Oscar winning actress. Jennifer Hudson has also overcome great personal tragedy in the murder of her mother, brother, and nephew.  Check her our in this months Essence magazine.

On her 80 pound weight loss: “I didn’t realize that so many people were watching me or that so many people were interested. Now people come up to me saying, ‘You’ve inspired me,’ and I’m like, Wow.”

On motherhood: “My wish is to be at least half as good as my mother was, as patient and as loving as she was, and to just give that to my son.”

On playing Winnie Mandela in Winnie: “We were supposed to shoot the film two years ago. But with all that happened in my life, they waited. Even the director was saying, ‘For you to take this project on with everything that happened shows you are really passionate about it.’ So I just hopped into it. I just really wanted to be a part of telling the story.”