Back in the day, Chaka Khan had one shocking incident that was definitely kept under wraps, but she dodged this bullet by the skin of her teeth! She has admitted to being involved in a very hostile situation with her then husband, Richard Holland. It all went down while Chaka was 8 months pregnant with their son, Damien, and she ended up doing the unthinkable.
What Happened
Typically when we think of domestic disputes, we usually think of the man being the aggressor, Chaka said this particular incident was provoked by her. In her 2003 memoir, “Through The Fire,” Chaka had previously detailed the dangerous incident, but didn’t disclose who the man was. It wasn’t until 2012 that she revealed it was her ex-husband, Richard, whom she’d once fired multiple shots at during a very hostile argument.
She stated that one night in 1976, she called Holland to let him know she was on her way home had forgotten her house keys, therefore, requesting him to leave the keys in their secret hiding spot. She says that when she finally returned home, the keys were not there, so she had to break a window to get in. This pissed her off and once Richard arrived later that evening, Chaka explained what happened:
Via Wenn: [Chaka] tells National Enquirer, “I went for the shotgun, loaded it, pulled the trigger. I missed him because as soon as he saw the gun, he high-tailed it into the office, slammed the door, and turned out the lights.” Khan…called police for help, but lied to authorities and blamed the shooting incident on an intruder. She continues, “When I came to my senses, as blood trickled from the wound above my eye, I wanted to damn myself to hell that Milini (her then-four-year-old daughter) had witnessed something like this. Not that it was the first fight she ever saw, but it was definitely the worst. I called the cops and made like there was an intruder in the house.”
Apparently when the cops showed up to Chaka’s home, they didn’t buy her story, because they hauled her husband off to jail instead. Following the fiasco, Chaka had a chance to settle down and soon realized what the depth of her actions:
“So there I was, an almost felon, the mother of a five-year old, with another baby on the way, a screwed up marriage and bills on top of bills. And there were thousands of women out there envying Chaka Khan, thinking if only they were me.”
Needless to say, Chaka’s trigger happy moment ended her marriage to Richard Holland, the man she wrote her hit song, “Sweet Thing,” for.
Lawd ha’mercy, Chaka almost went to the slammer for this one! Had Chaka landed one of those bullets into her then-husband (thankfully she didn’t), soul music as we know it, would have been totally different, because Chaka would not have been able to build the long lasting legacy she’s built now. Split-second decisions are vital- they can be our best friends, or our own worst enemies if we’re not thinking logically. We’re glad that Chaka had a bad aim that day and hopefully the effects of her daughter, Indira, experiencing such a volatile event, didn’t mentally or psychologically scar her for life.
On a side note, Chaka’s daughter, Indira Khan can SANG! Don’t believe us, watch her do her thing in this video above.
