Five-time world champion Booker T has three kids, Brandon, Kendrick, and Kennedy, from two different relationships.
The retired professional wrestler, Booker T, first experienced parenthood after his eldest son, Brandon Huffman, was born in 1984.
Brandon Huffman was born when Booker T was just 17 years old. He shared the baby with his high school girlfriend, Angela.
This was well before Booker T’s rise to fame in WCW, WWE, and TNA.
Booker T was married to Levestia Huffman for five years, from 1996 to 2001. However, they never had any children.
Four years later, from his divorce from Levestia Huffman, Booker T married Sharmell Sullivan Huffman, a fellow WWE Hall of Famer known as “Queen Sharmell” in 2005.
She first gained prominence in the wrestling industry as a member of WCW’s Nitro Girls dance troupe under the name “Storm.”
Booker T and Sharmell share twins, Kendrick and Kennedy Huffman who were born in 2010.
Booker T’s son Kendrick is a big wrestling fan; however, he has yet to fully explore the world of wrestling. Meanwhile, his daughter, Kennedy, is more into the business side. He said:
My son is a big wrestling fan. My daughter is into it as well. But they’re not at that stage right now from the wrestling side. They’re into the business side.
Wrestle Talk
That said, Booker T. doesn’t necessarily want his kids to follow his footsteps. He said:
I really don’t have any aspirations or dreams for him to be a professional wrestler.
Booker T and His Eldest Son Brandon Shared a Complicated Relationship!
The wrestler shares a complicated relationship with his eldest son, Brandon.
After his 19-month prison sentence for armed robbery, Booker T was released in 1989 at age 24.
He then fought to regain custody of Brandon, then a five-year-old who had been placed in foster care after being relinquished by his mother, Angela, to Texas Protective Services.
Brandon was in the foster care system for about 7 months by that point. His most vivid memory of his father, Booker T, was when he was lifted onto his father’s shoulders.
In the early years, Booker worked tirelessly to prove himself a worthy father. He secured a warehouse job while trying to rebuild his bond with Brandon.
They moved into a two-bedroom apartment on the south side of Houston. From six to ten years old, he was outgoing and had friends.
The father-son reunion was going great until Booker T. entered professional wrestling with WCW in the early 1990s.
Booker T was shot the limelight, but he pulled away from home, leaving Brandon in the care of Booker T’s sister, Carolyn.
While the wrestler saw this as necessary to secure a better future, Brandon felt the absence and yearned for a more consistent presence and communication.
As Brandon entered adolescence, Brandon grappled with dyslexia. Later, his father’s marriage to his first wife further strained their relationship.
Brandon clashed with his stepmother and stole her credit card to joyride without a license.
The breaking point came in Brandon’s late teens and early twenties, as his troubles escalated from defiance to serious crime.
At 17, Brandon faced a tough choice from his father, Booker: either change his ways, attend boot camp, or leave.
Brandon decided to move in with his aunt Billie. By 18, he got involved in dangerous activities, quick money schemes, and debt, which eventually led to his arrest in 2005 for aggravated robbery.
Booker did not bail him out, believing that it would only encourage poor choices. But Brandon felt abandoned in what he saw as his hour of greatest need, viewing his father’s choice as betrayal rather than tough love.
After Brandon was released from jail in 2012, the two barely communicated. Booker T and Brandon relied on family members to pass messages and only had rare, strained interactions.
Later, some family losses resulted in the reconciliation between the father and son in 2017.
By this time, Booker had remarried, raising five-year-old twins with his second wife, Sharmell.
Booker, while firm in his belief that he never wronged his son, believed he had fulfilled his duty as a parent by raising Brandon to adulthood.
On the other hand, Brandon, now a father of two, struggled with feelings of resentment. He compared his childhood, with limited financial support, to his father’s success and wealth as a wrestler.
Despite this, Brandon recognized that Booker T had saved him from foster care when he could have chosen not to.
Brandon called Booker T, admitted his mistakes, and understood his father’s intentions, which began to mend their relationship.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- Booker T’s wife, Sharmell Sullivan Huffman, was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2022.
- His net worth is estimated to be around $5 million.
