Tracee Ellis Ross looked back on an extraordinary childhood shaped by her mother, music legend Diana Ross. Her memories included famous visitors, luxury hotels, boarding school and a mother determined to protect family routines.
Growing up as Diana Ross’ daughter brought privileges that most children never experienced. Yet Tracee remembered breakfast, school mornings and quiet nights as anchors amid her mother’s demanding career.
Tracee Ellis Ross shared how Diana Ross balanced motherhood with her extraordinary music career
According to TODAY’s Sunday Sitdown, Tracee recalled her unusual New York childhood with Willie Geist. “Andy Warhol Painted me. Marvin Gaye called the house,” she said. “There’s things that are just not normal.”
Tracee grew up with her siblings at the Sherry Netherland Hotel. Her mother also maintained familiar routines despite her enormous career.
“The way my mom framed it is that was her job,” Tracee explained. “And so she woke us up for school in the morning, She sat with us for breakfast. She recorded while we were sleeping.”
Those routines helped Tracee view Diana’s stardom as work rather than their entire family identity. She later built her own career through Girlfriends and Black-ish.
Tracee also recently made her Broadway debut in Every Brilliant Thing. She continued exploring her past through her Roku travel series.
Season two of Solo Traveling With Tracee Ellis Ross premiered in July. The series took her back to Switzerland, where she attended boarding school at 13.
Returning after nearly four decades felt like “walking into a time machine,” Tracee recalled. The visit also brought back difficult memories.
“I was moved to tears numerous times revisiting those feelings of being away from home and the anxiety that I had around that,” she said. She also expressed “deep gratitude” for the experience her mother gave her and her sisters.
The trip made Tracee consider the distance between her childhood fears and her adult achievements. She described the experience as looking in both directions.
“It was like the little girl looking at me and me looking at the little girl,” she said. “This combination of like, ‘Whoa, look what I’ve done. Look how afraid I was.’”
Her reflection offered a glimpse beyond Diana Ross’ celebrity. Tracee remembered a childhood that felt extraordinary, yet still carried familiar family rituals.
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