The Real Reason You Never Hear About Eminem's Other Two Daughters

Even if you don't like Eminem's music, there's a good chance you know a lot about the man behind the music, Marshall Mathers. After all, he is one of the biggest-names in rap and one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world. Eminem's been telling the world his story for decades, and people have listened. Over the years, fans have even grown to know about Eminem's family through his music. We've heard about his volatile relationship with his ex-wife, Kim Scott/Mathers. We've also learned about his biological daughter, Hailie Scott Mathers.

Whether you first heard about her in "Just the Two of Us" on 1997's Slim Shady EP, in the re-titled track, "97 Bonnie & Clyde," on 1999's Slim Shady LP, or in one of the many subsequent songs in which Eminem rapped about his daughter, you have an idea who Hailie is. Yet, while plenty is known and shared about Hailie, little is known about Eminem's two other daughters, Whitney and Alaina. It's even possible that you're just now learning that Eminem had two other daughters.

Well, it's true. There are three of them. Though Alaina Marie Mathers, 25, and Whitney Scott Mathers, 16, don't get as much attention as Hailie in Eminem's music, they aren't totally absent from it either. Still, the details of their lives aren't readily available, and there's a good reason for that. In fact, there are several good reasons why we don't hear a lot about them.

While Eminem certainly loves and adores all three of his girls equally, we can't expect him to talk about Whitney or Alaina as much as he does Hailie. After all, Eminem began using Hailie in his lyrics very early on, before he ever adopted Alaina and before Whitney was even born. But Hailie's connection to Eminem's music goes deeper than that. After Eminem's first album, Infinite, flopped and he was fired from his cooking job, his fear of failing Hailie spurred him to new heights. "She has been my main source of drive and motivation," he said in a 2002 interview (via MTV). "I talk about her a lot ... the truth is she's all I got in this world. If everything ended tomorrow, she's all that I have."

From that early stage, amidst the rapper's venomous, sadistic, and often hateful personas, there was always the loving father. This caring side of Eminem came through in his music and kept him from ever straying too far to the dark side. In many ways, Hailie became a usable device in his music — the light and love of his life. For his dedicated fans, Eminem could evoke very specific images and emotions through nothing more than Hailie's name. Years later, he would simply tack Alaina and Whitney onto Hailie's function in his songs, combining them all into a three-headed metaphor.

Though it might seem like a stretch to suggest that Ja Rule had an impact on how Eminem goes about his work, it is plausible that the 2002 diss track "Loose Change" helped shape how much Eminem would involve Whitney and Alaina in his music moving forward. After all, this was the same year that Eminem adopted Alaina, and hearing Ja Rule publicly insult his daughter, Hailie, didn't go over lightly. In addition to a couple other diss tracks he made in response, Eminem addressed the feud and the Hailie insult in "Like Toy Soldiers" by rapping, "I heard him say Hailie's name on a song and I just lost it."

Sadly, Ja Rule isn't the only rapper to diss Hailie in a song. In 2013, the rap trio Hotstylz rapped about Hailie in their Eminem diss track "Rap Fraud," stating, "I see Hailie with kneepads is the c**ch clean? And she the prom queen. The king was fat, so congrats. I think your daughter just became a rat." When asked about their decision to insult a young girl, Hotstylz told Rolling Stone that they "don't think that's below the belt because we were basically mimicking him and that's something he would do himself." It's true. Indirectly, Eminem put his Hailie in the line of fire by including her in his music. Maybe he shrugged it all off, but it's possible that Eminem decided to shelter Whitney or Alaina from any similar cheap shots.

Perhaps no one knows better than Eminem the consequences that a high-profile life can have on a person. He's been sued by several people that he's rapped about, including his mother. His ex-wife attempted suicide after watching him perform a song about abusing her, and his best friend, DeShaun Dupree Holton, was shot, killed, and allegedly robbed in 2006. Eminem's fame has created a ripple effect and touched nearly everyone in his life.

Aside from the suicide attempt, Eminem's ex-wife and sometimes-target in his music, Kim, has experienced firsthand the challenges of living in the public eye. "[People think] just because we have money, that it makes us happy," she said in a radio interview (via Daily Mail). "Yeah, I can pay bills. Yeah, I can get my kids whatever they ask for and it's great to see them happy. But you lose friends, you lose family, you have no one you can trust you can speak to." Eminem, too, shares these feelings. "I have trust issues," he told Rolling Stone. "With women, friends, whatever. You always wonder what their real motives are."

Since both parents of Whitney and Alaina speak openly of the complexities and dangers of fame, it only makes sense they would grow up being sheltered from it. Not only would their privacy be protected by their parents, but they themselves would likely be more wary of having a public persona.

One of the main reasons the world doesn't hear about Eminem's daughters as much as we might think we should is because they don't live with the star. Even if they did live together, it's unlikely that Eminem's privacy rules would allow them to be seen and heard much. Yet, Eminem, Kim, and Hailie do live close to each other. Alaina, now a 25-year old college graduate,  likely lives on her own (though she hasn't made the whereabouts of her residence public), and Whitney, at just 16-years old, lives with Kim. The distance from dad, however small, keeps a bit of a wall up in front of Alaina and Whitney.

The girls don't hide away though. In June of 2018, when Eminem performed at the Governor's Ball in New York City, Whitney, Hailie, and her boyfriend, Evan McClintock, were spotted in NYC to see the show. The visit didn't make a whole lot of noise because the girls just shopped, watched their dad perform to a sold-out crowd, and then went home. Being well-behaved does wonders for keeping the tabloids silent, especially since the world just isn't interested in non-controversial celebrity children. In the past, Eminem's and Kim's tumultuous relationship made them near-constant headlines, so Hailie's name popped up here and there. These days, the family works like a well-oiled machine. "He's been real supportive," Kim said of the rapper. "We're really close. We're just trying to raise our kids together and make it as normal for them as possible."