LeBron James’ mother Gloria raised him on her own and remains a fixture in the NBA star’s life

LeBron James’ mother, Gloria James, proudly calls herself “Mother of the King,” and even has a tattoo that reads “Queen James.”

In terms of her character outside of being a mom to the NBA legend, however, she remains humble.

“I’m very simple and down to earth,” Gloria said in a Q&A with students from LeBron’s I Promise School in Akron, Ohio. 

“So if you ever need a shoulder to cry on, an ear to speak into, a hug, anything. We’re a big happy family.”

Gloria, a single mom to LeBron, remains a major fixture in his professional and personal life, often cheering him on at games and events. 

The NBA star credits her for making him the success that he is today.

In a conversation with Maria Shriver for Today in 2014, LeBron said, “I don’t know if she read about it, or she just heard about it, but from day one, I always had that mother and father inside my mother, so I never was a kid that was kind of like, ‘Where is my father?’ “

He added, “She gave me strength to a point where I never even had to think about that, and I have no idea where she got it from. To this day I still won’t even ask her, but she’s definitely the champion.”

Get to know LeBron James’ mom and beloved champion, Gloria James.

She had LeBron when she was 16 and raised him alone

Gloria Marie James was born in Akron, Ohio, on Feb. 4, 1968, and has two brothers, Curt and Terry James.

She had LeBron when she was 16 years old, and LeBron never had a relationship with his biological father, according to Sports Illustrated. Gloria had some help raising LeBron early on from her own mother, LeBron’s grandmother Freda James Howard, as LeBron recalled in a 2014 essay he penned for Today.

However, Howard died on Christmas Day in 1987 when LeBron was 3 years old. Gloria was then largely on her own, making ends meet with her two brothers as she took care of her son.

It wasn’t easy: LeBron and Gloria moved seven times by the time he was 5 years old. When he was in the fourth grade, LeBron missed 82 days of school and was sent to live with a foster family temporarily when Gloria and her brothers couldn’t pay their heating bill.

“Just how much responsibility that comes with being a single mom every single day, you don’t have that other half or that helping male influence in the house that can — especially in my case, being a son — that can give you that fatherly love or that fatherly guidance,’ ” LeBron told Shriver. “My mother figured [that] out.”

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