Stormzy wants to reconnect with estranged dad who walked out on him as a child

In a recent heartfelt interview, Stormzy has opened up about wanting to reconnect with his estranged dad.

The rapper sat down to talk with Louis Theroux, and they covered his childhood, dating life, faith and the strained relationship with his father.

Stormzy - real name Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. - discussed the anger he had felt towards his dad, who had left his mum and started a new family before approaching him to ask for favours following his success.

However, he said he now took a more forgiving perspective.

Speaking on the first episode of Louis Theroux Interviews - which aired last night (Tuesday 25 October) - he said: "I've kind of got to give him the same grace that I want from the world. The same grace that I wanted from Maya [ex Maya Jama].

"Really and truly, you're just a flawed man. Your mistake was a big one, you f****d up bad as in you left your kids.

"I know he's really sorry, he's reached out through my mum, my sisters about being sorry and he's spoken to people."

Freddie Claire/BBC/Mindhouse

Asked whether they'd reconciled yet, the 29-year-old replied: "Not yet, not properly. I'm gonna speak to him, yeah.

"One hundred percent I have the power to say 'I forgive you' and free you of all these things that you probably feel because of this massive mistake that you made."

Stormzy also revealed that growing up he had been stabbed twice, and he admitted he had not fully considered the ramifications of losing multiple friends to violence at a young age.

"(These) things are easy to discuss from the suburbs, from my sofa…but it's still people's lives and realities," he told Theroux.

Speaking about the production of his first studio album Gang Signs and Prayer, released in 2017, he said it had been 'difficult' balancing his personal and professional life.

"I came into music when I was 19 or 20 and I'm becoming a man, I'm growing," he said.

"I'm going on my journey as a man and I'm also trying to figure out how to be the greatest artist.

"(I'm) also in a relationship…and I'm also being a family man, a son, a provider and I'm also trying to provide and lead in my community, my people.

Stephen Chung/Alamy Stock Photo

"It was very overwhelming and difficult to handle all of those things while I was making an album.

"I would often just crash out, or get super depressed or super withdrawn or super reclusive and disappear.

"I would just stay at home and smoke a lot of weed. It was just a feeling, overwhelmingly, of 'I actually can't handle this', which was also a new feeling to me because I was always a very capable child.

"I would break down, it was super heavy."

Topics: Celebrity, Music, Stormzy, Louis Theroux

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey