Jennifer Hudson opens up on Oprah

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Jennifer Hudson has given Oprah her first interview since her mother, brother and nephew were murdered – and revealed that work is helping her get through her grief.

The Oscar and Grammy-winning performer opened up in a brief chat with the Queen of the Sofa, saying: 'I'm just glad to be back and be back to work again. Just doing what I love to do is like therapy.

'I'm in a very good place,' she assured the host.

Hudson's mother, brother and seven-year-old nephew were found shot dead last October in Chicago. Jennifer's sister's estranged husband William Balfour has pleaded not guilty to the slayings.

But Jennifer didn't reference the murders directly, and took the opportunity to give a rousing performance of her new single If This isn't Love.

Hudson did say that Whitney Houston handing her the Grammy for Best R&B Album almost surpassed winning the gong itself.

'As soon as she stepped out on the stage, I lost it. That's when I got emotional,' she said, and admitted she used to create duets with Houston's records and dream about winning a Grammy.

And was she nervous when singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl? (Her first public performance since the murders). No, said nerves-of-steel Hudson.

'There was too much going on for me to take it in,' she insisted.

Even the difficult final phrases of the national anthem didn't throw her.

'To me, the biggest notes and the longest notes are the easiest notes,' she said.

'It's just like I'm glad that I made it to the end of the song. That's how I am. OK, I got this now, I'm home. I'm going home now.'

Monday 2 March 2009

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