Rap star Ja Rule blames his family's Jehovah's Witness roots for ruining his childhood.
The I'm Real hitmaker reveals he was never allowed to celebrate birthdays or Christmases growing up - and even playing with other children was a problem for his strict grandparents, who helped raise him.
As a result, the rapper, real name Jeffrey Atkins, goes overboard when his children celebrate birthdays and special occasions.
He tells Sister 2 Sister magazine, "I had a difficult childhood. My grandparents were Jehovah's Witnesses, so, as a child I had to deal with no birthdays and no Christmases.
"People don't understand - It's no Christmas, and it's no being outside with other children that are not in your congregation. It's a lot of rules that are hard on children." The rapper was "disfellowshipped" when he went to live with his mother and had been kicked out of the church for socialising with "worldly people", when he was 12.
He explains, "When you get disfellowshipped, nobody's allowed to talk to you - They all treated my mom like this f**king outcast because she had some drinks with her co-workers on occasion - That f**ked with me as a child."
