Tracee Ellis Ross sat down with SELF magazine for a candid interview where she credited her mom, Diana Ross, for setting the example of what an independent woman looks like.
Ross, 52, shared how she has been the main architect in her life thanks to her mom. “I come from a lot of abundance, but all of the abundance that I enjoy is mine, that I’ve built.” She continued, “And building my own life has made me very aware of what my mother built on her own and what it took for her to do that.”
Tracee says that her mom, now 81, didn’t build the wealth or career she has “because of a man.”
“The example she set for me [was] that I didn’t need a man to build the life I wanted,” she continues. “It wasn’t, ‘Look at me,’ it was, ‘This is me.’ And that informed something very important for me foundationally.”
In the interview, Ross revealed that she never subscribed to the idea of waiting your whole life to be swept off your feet.
“Men get to an age where they’re like, ‘Now I’m ready.’ But women, we’re supposed to be waiting the whole time,” she says. “This is not going to be some sweep-me-off-my-feet [moment]. I like where my feet are. I’ve worked very hard to get them underneath me,” she says.
“I want a whole life and I want a real life, and I want a true life, and I want a partner that’s not going to sweep me off my feet, but is going to link arms with me. And that might not happen, and that’s okay.”
“The thing I’m most proud of is the life that I’ve built
Rather than being known as someone’s partner, the Black-ish star wants to continue to have a fulfilled life.
“The thing I’m most proud of is the life that I’ve built. And I don’t mean the things that I have. I mean that I am living a life that is a reflection of my insides, that when my head hits the pillow at night, I’m like, ‘I like this.’”
Diana Ross and her then-husband, music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein, share Tracee Ellis Ross, 52, and and Chudney, 49 in 1971.
Diana split from Silberstein in 1977 and went on to marry Norwegian businessman and mountaineer Arne Naess Jr. in 1986. The former couple had sons Ross, 37, and Evan, 36.