Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer is a Jewish-American artist and painter. She is widely recognized as the mother of rapper, singer and songwriter, Doja Cat. Sawyer was born in 1963 in the United States of America.

Asides from being the mother of the popular Doja Cat, she is also quite successful in her career and has been able to make a living for herself and her family. It also seems like she is pretty close to her daughter and indeed the rest of her family.

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Here Are 10 Interesting Facts About Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer You Should Know

1. Deborah Elizabeth Is A Professional Painter

She is a professional painter who learned the art of painting from her mother. Elizabeth is quite passionate about her craft and since she has been doing this since her childhood, she has gotten really good at it. Sawyer paints a lot of environment-related paintings and does so using mostly wax oil and gouache. She also loves to experiment with colors a lot.

2. Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer’s Husband?

Deborah got married to a South African man who is into show-business named Dumisani Dlamini. He was a popular producer, dancer, actor, and songwriter. They met when he was on the ‘Sarafina’ tour in the United States.

Dumisani and Deborah’s relationship instantly kicked off after they met and they had an intimate wedding ceremony. However, Dlamini had to return back to his hometown in Africa. Although he stayed back for a while in the United States after the tour, he felt the need to go back home.

3. Reason Why Deborah And Her Husband Separated

The couple eventually separated after Dlamini returned back to his home country and left Deborah back in the US. Although they initially planned to return together, situations and circumstances prevented this from happening. Deborah’s husband even planned on moving his family to be with him but that fell through as well.

Elizabeth remained in America while her husband continued his life in South Africa. As there were no plans of relocating to meet the other, they had to get divorced.

4. She Raised Her Kids Alone

Doja Cat’s mother was left to raise the three kids she had with her South African husband alone. She raised Doja and her siblings alone and catered for their every needs excluding having a present father. Her children were not familiar with their dad and did not know much about him. They basically had themselves and their mother to go through life with.

5. Who Is Doja Cat?

Doja Cat is a renowned name in the American music industry. She is the main reason why Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer is known today. She was born on the 21st of October 1995 in Tarzana, Los Angeles, California, and raised alongside two other siblings.

Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini also known as Doja Cat grew up finding love and passion for the arts. However, it was not for the type of art her mum practiced. Her passion was for music and dance which is probably the one thing she inherited from her dad.

Although she had a rocky beginning to her career, we cannot forget the girl whose career started off with releases of her music to Soundcloud while just a teenager.

6. Her Daughter’s Controversies

Although Elizabeth Sawyer has lived a relatively quiet life free from scandals and controversies, the same cannot be said of her daughter. Doja Cat has made headlines a couple of times because of stuff she said or tweeted about.

One time, in 2018, she drew attention to herself when it was revealed that she had used the word ‘faggot’ in a tweet dug up from 2015. She defended herself claiming it was a word she had used several times in the past. Doja also claimed that using the word did not mean she hated gay people as she does not hate them. However, she later apologized for it and deleted the tweets.

Moving on, she faced backlash again in March of 2020 after stating on Instagram that the Corona Virus was merely flu. She said she was not afraid of the virus and even went on to participate in a Halloween party hosted by Kendall Jenner.

Also, in May of 2020, she went under huge criticism for her 2015 song titled ‘Dindu Nuffin’. It was claimed that the song was used to ridicule African-American victims of Police brutality in the US. She was also blasted for using the derogatory term ‘nigger’ during an interview.

Amala denied and refuted most of these claims and tried to explain her way out of the ugly situations. However, it seems like she attracts a lot of controversies as this was not the last of it all.

Her 2020 MTV Europe Music Awards performance of ‘Say So’ was noted to have an identical guitar solo to that of Plini’s 2016 ‘Handmade Cities’ song. As a result of this, Doja apologized to Plini and so far that has been the last of known controversies involving her.

7. Elizabeth Sawyer Is Also An Actress

Sawyer is not just a great painter but also an actress. Although her movie accolades are not so long and notable, she has been acknowledged for being part of some movies. She was featured in movies; ‘Friends Don’t Let Friends Date’ and ‘Martyrs- The Chronicles of Blood’.

SEE ALSO: Who Is Nia Kay? 10 Interesting Facts To Know About Her

8. She Inspired Her Daughter’s Music Style

Though she was from a Jewish background and wasn’t exposed to hip-hop songs and types of music, Deborah still found herself listening to them. She got introduced to artists such as Erykah Badu, Fugees, Jamiroquai, and a host of others with whom she instantly fell in love.

Doja Cat’s mum got to love these artists and their style of music and so she introduced her daughter to this genre from an early age. Sawyer, in her daughter’s words, was some sort of hip-hop head and this inspired her music taste.

9. Her Children’s Relationship With Her Estranged Husband

Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer’s kids have a not-so-great relationship with their dad. Owing to the fact that Dlamini left his family in the United States of America and returned to South Africa while they were still very young, they have vague memories of him.

Doja Cat and her siblings never had a father figure in their life and so their father was estranged. However, Doja stated that her dad used to leave comments on her Instagram posts. Although it was weird in the beginning, it grew on her and she doesn’t hate him for abandoning them.

10. Net Worth

Deborah Sawyer the celebrity mother of superstar rapper, Doja Cat is said to have a net worth estimated to be within $100 to $200 thousand. However, her daughter has a net worth of $8 million from her successful music career.

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