Johannesburg – We’re used to seeing Pearl Thusi lighting up our screens, inspiring us with her sharp fashion sense and happy attitude.
But before all of the flashing lights and endorsement deals, Pearl was just a struggling mom trying to keep her head afloat.
Talking to Slikour recently, Pearl reveals there was a time when she had to use all her money to take her child to school, with not enough money to buy herself food.
“I’ve been broke. I’ve slept dreaming about toast with butter and woke up smelling it, and only had a quarter piece left. I’ve got money for petrol but not for bread,” she remembers.
Pearl says her family was unable to help her because she had just lost her mother, and her extended family were also trying to make ends meet in their lives.
But she remembers her grandmother and her mother’s best friend sending her R1400.
“To me that was a lot of money because of how broke I was. My grandmother took her pension money and sent it to us and my mother’s friends sent us money. I’ll forever be grateful. I don’t forget that,” she says.
“Some of my own siblings couldn’t send us money at the time, or wouldn’t. I’ve made some new family in Johannesburg. Sometimes blood isn’t thick enough,” she adds.
Watch her opening up about her struggles and why she’ll never confirm who she is romantically involved with.