“God was going to heal her”

Donna Summer’s daughter opens up about battle with cancer that claimed her mother’s life.

On a recent episode of the “Allison Interviews” podcast, Brooklyn Sudano recalled the details of her mother’s battle with lung cancer, which claimed the singer’s life in 2012.

“My mother was extremely strong as a person. I think his decision not to share [her diagnosis] with the world was that she was a woman of faith, and she truly believed that God was going to heal her,” the “My Wife and Kids” star, 42, told host Allison Kugel.

Summer, whom Sudano described as “one of the strongest people” she knew, remained positive and surrounded herself with like-minded people.

“When you’re in the public eye, you end up carrying a lot of emotion for them,” Sudano continued of his “soldier” mother. “She didn’t think she could handle other people’s fear about her illness, or their expectations of what she would look like.”

The ‘Love to Love You Baby’ hitmaker never went to the hospital, much to his doctor’s surprise, and Sudano said the late star was ‘working’ on receiving love ‘without having to give’ during the last year of his life.

“She just had a strength and a will that was beyond anything I had known before, and she died at her home in Naples, Florida.”

The Grammy-winning disco queen who died at 63 is the subject of an HBO documentary which premiered this week.

“Love To Love You, Donna Summer,” which debuted May 20, opens the lid on the struggles the singer has faced during her successful career.

She was sexually abused by her pastor as a child and later physically abused by her partner Peter Mühldorfer, who said he “could never have forgiven himself” after hitting her.

Her mental health deteriorated and she genuinely contemplated suicide – but her foot got caught in the hotel curtain as a housekeeper entered the room. She later admitted that if another “10 seconds” had passed, she would have been screwed.

‘Love to Love You Baby’ – one of the most outrageous songs of its era – landed Summer legendary status, but despite her public identity as a sex symbol, the disco legend was a born-again Christian .

“When I first discovered this song, there was this moment when I went to see my younger sister Amanda and said, ‘Oh my God, do I have a crazy song for you! ‘” Sudano told Kugel.

But some of Summer’s remarks have gotten her in hot water over the years, namely the comment, “God didn’t create Adam and Steve. He made Adam and Eve.

“His intent was not meant to be hurtful, but obviously a lot of people were hurt by it,” Sudano said. “We wanted to acknowledge that, but the way it snowballed and all the things people said about her and how she felt about the LGBTQ+ community was the complete antithesis of who she was.”

In fact, the actress said the community was “a big part of her fanbase” and their lives, saying Summers was “caught in a time of change about what you could say and what you could not”.

Still, Summer’s success was “groundbreaking,” Sudano said.

“I think in many ways it was very empowering for so many people to see and see a woman, especially a black woman, be on stage and own her own power,” she said. “It was revolutionary for the time.”