Release

THE INSIDER: NIECY NASH OPENS UP ABOUT THE SECRET FAMILY TRAGEDY SHE'S HIDDEN FOR OVER 20 YEARS

November 9, 2009 (Los Angeles, CA)--  Comedian and THE INSIDER panelist Niecy Nash and her mother Margaret Ensley open up about their harrowing story of domestic violence in an in-depth two-part interview to air tonight, November 9th and tomorrow, November 10th.

Niecy and Margaret tell THE INSIDER that one night in 1985, after an argument, Margaret was shot in the back by her then-boyfriend with a sawed-off shotgun while Niecy, only 15 years old, was inside the house.

Margaret recalls the tragic night, "He had just grabbed me by the hair and just dragged me down the hallway." Niecy continues, "He picked up this sawed off shotgun, clicks it, and just BOOM, he just shot her in the back and she flew out the back door.  And all of a sudden I heard him say, 'I did something I didn't want to do. I shot Margaret.' And then I heard him say, 'God forgive me.'  And then I heard a boom. He shot himself."

"I knew this was it," Margaret says. "At that point in time, I laid outside and tried to make peace with God." As Margaret lay thinking she was dying, she tells THE INSIDER that her only thought was of Niecy inside the house, when suddenly she realized that her boyfriend had also set the house on fire. "I heard the shot, I thought oh my God, he's killed my daughter," Margaret said.  "And that's when you give up. I started praying to God. I wanted to die right then."

Thankfully, Niecy got out of the house and was able to help her mother, "She held me," Margaret says.  "She said you're not going to die mom, I won't allow it. She prayed with me.  She told me how to breathe.  She was my angel."

In 1993, the family experienced further tragedy as Niecy's brother Michael was shot and killed at 17 years old on his high school campus by a fellow student. "He had his books on his back headed for his 2nd period class and a young man made his way on the campus with a loaded .22 and shot him," Margaret says. "I couldn't scream, I couldn't do anything. Tears just fell but I was disconnected from it all. And I've never recovered from that."

Niecy says that in a perverse way, her comedy was borne out of her family tragedies, "The only thing I knew [while grieving] was that I was funny. So when my mom was laying in bed I'd come stand at the foot of the bed and tell her jokes and stories. There have been so many times that I myself live in a place of laughing to keep from crying."

    Show Contacts