Grammy Winning Gospel Artist Kirk Franklin is Frank About His Marriage and Porn Addiction

Kirk Franklin is known for his energetic praise to God. Countless people has said how his music has uplifted-even changed- their lives, but Kirk Franklin had deeper problems in his life that he chose not to keep hidden in his closet.

Kirk Franklin told Lynn Norment, reporter for Ebony Magazine how he felt rejected as a young teenager. " [My Mother] didn't want me, she wanted an abortion." Kirk continued to say, "It's just amazing the things that can happen to a boy when he doesn't get the affirmation and the love he needs from his mother and father. And I never got that." He continued to talk about how he turned to promiscuity and his "little stash of magazines" He also shockingly told Norment that he became sexual at the age of 9 or 10.

Even after marriage to the very lovely Tammy Franklin, Kirk continued to watch pornography and had "unrealistic sexual expectations" for her.  Once Kirk told Tammy that he was addicted her response was surprising. She told Norment, "For him to tell me, to trust me, it brought us closer." She continues to say about her marriage to Kirk, "It's like as the years progress and you go through trials adn you go through what we went through, and other things, whether it involves children or heratache...I love this man today more then the day that we stood before our parents and God, it's just amazing."

On Kirk Franklin's CD, Hero, he discusses his pain in his own creatively beautiful way in songs such as "Imagine Me" and "Let It go" He still gives praises to God and to Christ who he knows forgives him and helps him through his struggles and pains. Many people has come up to Kirk Franklin and told him that he saved them when he was so open about himself and his problems. Many people, like myself, no longer condemn themselves for their mistakes, when someone who seems to be so close to God can still struggle with problems.

Kirk says, “There is so much fakery; I saw so many false faces growing up in the church. I didn’t want to be a false face.”

“There is so much fakery; I saw so many false faces growing up in the church. I didn’t want to be a false face.”