Who are Lenny Kravitz’s famous parents? Everything we know about Roxie Roker and Sy Kravitz
When Lenny Kravitz stopped by the TODAY Plaza in New York City’s Rockefeller Center on Thursday, it was a special visit for more than one reason: Rockefeller Center is also where his parents met more than six decades earlier.
“My parents were at the Rockefeller Center, where they met at NBC, so I grew up around all these buildings in this great city, so it’s always wonderful to be here,” Kravitz told Savannah Guthrie on the Citi Concerts stage Sept 12.
The singer, 60, also reflected on the sweet tribute he paid to his late mother, Roxie Roker, at the MTV VMAs on Sept 11.
Kravitz won best rock for “Human,” a song from his latest album, “Blue Electric Light,” and he dedicated the award to his mom.
“Thirty-one years before, when I won for best male video, my mother was with me, and that’s the last awards show — and first awards show — that she was ever at before she passed,” he explained on the TODAY Plaza. “So that really meant a lot to me last night, and I dedicated that to my mother.”
Kravitz has opened up in the past about his mom, who died in 1995, and his dad, who died in 2005.
Read on to learn more about the musician’s parents, Roxie Roker and Sy Kravitz.
His mom starred in ‘The Jeffersons’
Roxie Roker portrayed Helen Willis in “The Jeffersons” throughout the sitcom’s 11-season run from 1975 to 1985.
She played a black woman married to a white man, Tom Willis (Franklin Cover), a groundbreaking storyline at a time when interracial relationships were seldom seen on TV.
Before her time on “The Jeffersons,” Roker studied acting in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and earned a drama degree from Howard University, according to her obituary in The New York Times.
She also appeared in several off-Broadway shows and earned a Tony nomination in 1974 for her performance in “The River Niger.”
Following “The Jeffersons,” Roker appeared in television series including “Punky Brewster,” “A Different World” and the “Roots” miniseries.
Lenny Kravitz discussed his mom’s relationship with fame and how this influenced his own approach to stardom.
“She was on 'The Jeffersons.' She was a grown woman, she knew who she was. All her values were set,” he told Forbes in 2020. “And I did learn so much about how to deal with it. Not so much in terms of people, but in terms of retaining your character. She stayed who she was, she stayed humble.”
Kravitz also said she did not live a life of luxury during her time on the show.
“I grew up and we didn’t have a maid, housekeepers, drivers and assistants. We had none of that. My mom was scrubbing her own toilet on Saturday morning,” he said. “So I did have that education.”
His parents married after meeting at NBC in New York City
Kravitz’s dad, Sy Kravitz, was a journalist and TV producer. He met Roxie Roker while working as an assignment editor at NBC News, where she was a secretary.
If Roxie Roker’s last name rings a bell, it’s not a coincidence; she and TODAY’s Al Roker were second cousins, meaning their grandfathers were cousins.
“Many people get Lenny Kravitz and I confused, especially when his shirt is off,” Al joked on TODAY in 2020.
Roxie Roker and Sy Kravitz married in 1962 and welcomed their only child together, Lenny, two years later.
Sy Kravitz's parents did not approve of their interracial marriage and did not attend the wedding, according to The New York Times.
The couple ultimately divorced in 1985.
Roxie Roker shared a close bond with her son
Kravitz has often spoken about the close relationship he shared with his mother, who died in 1995 from breast cancer.
″I was a mama’s boy,″ he told People in 2020. ″She was a woman who never spoke badly about anybody, even if they deserved it. At her funeral, late actor Brock Peters said, ‘If Roxie met the devil himself, she’d say to him, 'What a lovely red suit.' The whole place burst out laughing because that was my mother. She’s going to find the positive thing that she can say or do in any situation.″
Kravitz has also said he finds comfort in watching old episodes of “The Jeffersons” featuring his mother.
“I’m very fortunate that she was on television because when I need to, I’ll turn on 'The Jeffersons' and watch her, and it does so much for me,” he told People in February.
He added that his mother is “still everything” to him.
I probably feel her more since she’s left the planet,” he said.
Roker and Kravitz made a rare joint appearance on television on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1991, and their close bond seemed clear from the way they bantered back and forth.
Roker teased her son about his fashion sense and said that when he changed his hairstyle as a younger man, she said, “No, Lenny, you’re not going to do that, are you?”
She also teased her son for wearing his trademark shades inside the darkened studio.
“C’mon, you can take off your glasses now,” she said with a laugh.
Kravitz has opened up about his complicated relationship with his father
In his 2020 memoir, “Let Love Rule,” Kravitz opened up about some painful memories involving his dad.
He shared that when he was 16, his dad threw him out of the house for a while, according to The New York Times.
He shared that when he was about 19, he discovered that his father had been cheating on his mother. In the book, he recalled that his dad said to him about his infidelity, “You’ll do it, too.”
“It was the most horrific thing he could have said,” he told The New York Times in 2020. “Those words burned through me. It’s taken me my life to deal with. “He said, ‘You’ll do it, too,’ grabbed his bag, and walked out the front door. It couldn’t have been better directed.”
Kravitz also once opened up about fearing his dad when he was young.
“My father, at the end of the day was a man that had a lot of love and sensitivity in him, but he was really hardcore,” he said on Oprah’s Master Class podcast in 2018. “Super-heavy disciplinarian. He wasn’t the kind of man to talk a lot … I was afraid of him as a child.”
In later years, Kravitz said he found some peace in his relationship with his dad.
He described a transformative experience they shared shortly before his father passed away in 2005.
“I think he had a spiritual awakening” shortly before he died, Kravitz told Piers Morgan on CNN in 2011. “He made mistakes, he wished it wasn’t the way it was, he wished he could change it, but didn’t know how. He just admitted it and it was beautiful, and from that moment on — he lived another, maybe, month — it was the best month of our lives and it made up for everything.”
He also said writing his 2020 memoir helped him process his memories and feelings about his dad.
“Even though we had made peace before he died I was still holding on to some stuff. And by virtue of writing the book and seeing my father as a character, as a man who was operating with what he had,” he told Forbes. “I was able to completely see him without judgment and see him as a man who was trying to find his way through this life.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
