Jewel, the Alaskan singer who was once a homeless woman, recently shared her near-death experience after a hospital emergency room rejected her for being poor. Now, two decades after she released the album, "Pieces of You," which changed her life forever, the "Hands" singer reflected about her traumatic past, poverty and dealing with the stigma of being homeless.
Jewel, who is now a proud mom to her 4-year-old son Kase with rodeo star Ty Murray, opened up about her near-death experience as well as dating actor Sean Penn and her new album. In an interview with TODAY, she revealed her personal struggles including the emotional and physical abuse at the hand of her father, to being broke and homeless and living out of her car, which happened after she turned down a boss' sexual advances and lost her job.
"I almost died in an emergency room because they didn't see me because I didn't have [health] insurance," Jewel said. "Thankfully, a doctor had seen me get turned away. I was dying of lead poisoning and he gave me some antibiotics and saved my life."
"But then, the car I was living in got stolen," she added. "And when you don't have a physical address, much less of an education, it's very, very difficult to get a job and break that poverty cycle."
Aside from Jewel's near-death experience, the "You Were Meant For Me" hitmaker also shared that the hardest thing when she had nothing was being treated as if she was "sub-human" or she "didn't matter."
"People looked at me like I was absolutely disgusting," she said. "I wanted to yell at them and say, 'I'm human! I may not have a house, but I matter!'"
Jewel's dark past indeed depicted the story of a young girl who rose from rags to riches. Thus, she has always an unfathomable compassion for the homeless, experiencing firsthand what it's like to not have a stable environment to grow up in. And because of her personal experiences, she collaborated with ReThink, an organization dedicated to changing perception about public housing and homelessness.
Jewel also narrated the organization's new documentary, "Our Journey Home," which premiered in New York on Oct. 8.
"There are stigmas that these people are lazy, or don't work, or do drugs," she said, as per Hollywood Life. "I don't want anyone thinking happiness is beyond their reach because they don't have the right job or economic background, or a home."
As for her new album, "Picking Up the Pieces," it included some songs she wrote when she was a teenager. Us Weekly also noted that it was her way of making a conservation with her 18-year-old self. She also opened up about her hardships and romance with Sean Penn in her upcoming memoir, "Never Broken."
"I had a wonderful time with Sean and he was really lovely to me during a critical time in my life," she said of the relationship. "Nothing but fond memories."
While Jewel's near-death and dark past experiences made her the brave woman she is today, it also made her a "more thoughtful, conscious parent." She also emphasized that having a good economic background is not the sole basis for happiness.
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