LaTanya Young: Why she became homeless
The legendary music producer and creator of Beats by Dre, with a fortune nearing $500 million, is a household name.
Yet his eldest daughter, 41-year-old LaTanya Young, has been facing heartbreaking struggles of her own.
A mother of four, LaTanya has been living out of her rented SUV, desperately reaching out to her father for help.
LaTanya Young mother
Dr. Dre, born Andre Romell Young, is a name that’s synonymous with success, music, and wealth. The chart-topping producer got eight kids in total, but it’s his eldest daughter, LaTanya Young, who’s been getting a lot of attention recently.
Born in 1983, LaTanya Young has faced incredibly tough times recently, and perhaps her turbulent life can be traced back to the very day she was born.
Her mom, Lisa Johnson, started dating Dre when she was just 14. Raised in South Central LA with her father absent and her brother tragically killed in gang violence, Lisa dealt with hardships from an early age.
Andre seduced her when she was in ninth grade, and their relationship was controversial from the start, according to Ben Westhoff, author of Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap.
Lisa Johnson’s mother thought she was too young to be dating, so the couple skipped school to meet in secret. Lisa Johnson had three daughters with Dr. Dre.
In the late 1980s, when their eldest, LaTanya, was just five years old, the couple went their separate ways. According to LaTanya, the issues with her father started back then. Ever since she was young, the daughter says she had to go through her father’s assistants to get in touch with him.
Why isn’t she talking to her father?
”I hated going through third parties. If I needed him, I’d have to go to the studio and get bombarded and talked to by his security,” she told Daily Mail in 2020.
”I would have to go through his accountant or his right hand man, I would never know whether he got my messages. I have never had a direct line to him.”
LaTanya felt like her dad gave up on her, and she didn’t understand why.
”He did offer to help me with tuition but he never speaks to me. He never set me up to be able to not need him. He never paid for college, he never did anything to help me and my sisters get along,” she told the tabloid.
In 2021, LaTanya Young, a single mother of four, opened up about her heartbreaking struggle to survive. She revealed that she had been living out of her car, working as a delivery driver for DoorDash and Uber Eats just to make ends meet.
”I have friends and family that will let us come back and forth but the majority of the time I’m living out of my car,” she explained.
Despite reaching out to her father for help, she found no support. LaTanya said that she tried contacting him through his lawyer, but according to her, Dr. Dre refuses to assist her. This is largely because she has spoken to the press about their estranged relationship, according to LaTanya.
LaTanya told the Daily Mail that while her kids were staying with friends, she was the one living in her car. She said she was taking whatever odd jobs she could find, like working at a warehouse for $15 an hour, just to make ends meet. She admitted she’d been in debt for a while and was doing her best to keep her head above water.
”A millionaire’s daughter”
The estranged daughter also told the press that she hasn’t seen her father in 18 years, and she doesn’t even have his cell phone number.
LaTanya also launched a GoFundMe campaign to help secure a safe and stable home for herself and her four children.
”People label me as a millionaire’s daughter so they don’t understand why I’m working. It makes me want to crawl under a rock,” she said and continued:
”He used to help with our rent and gave an allowance but he told us he wouldn’t do anything anymore. I’m out on the streets.”
And when she heard that her dad, Dr. Dre, had to pay $300,000 a month in spousal support to his ex, Nicole Young, LaTanya couldn’t hide her frustration. It stung, especially since she felt people were probably looking at her and wondering why she wasn’t getting any help while he was handing out that kind of money.
In her mind, it was hard not to think that what Nicole was getting should’ve gone to her own mom, Lisa, who raised her and her sisters after Dre left back in the late ’80s.
”I honestly wrote a proposal and asked him if he could get a home for me and my sister and my kids.He was supposed to put us through college and pay for our health insurance and he never did that. My mom felt like he never upheld his end of the bargain,” LaTanya shared.
At the same time, LaTanya expressed that she hadn’t given up hope on mending her strained relationship with her father. “I know my dad is a busy man, but I hope he will see this and reach back out to me on a father-daughter level,” she shared.
We truly hope things turn around for LaTanya and send her all the strength and support she needs today!
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