Da Brat and Jesseca ‘Judy’ Harris-Dupart reveal they received death threats, miscarry suggestions during IVF process

The So So Def rapper and her wife welcomed a baby boy, True Legend, in 2023.

The joys of parenthood for Da Brat and her wife, Jesseca “Judy” Harris-Dupart, are well documented in their new book, “The Way Love Goes.” However, the pair share some of the darker moments they faced while trying to conceive their two-year-old son, True Legend, through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

In a conversation with People, the “Funkdafied” rapper and her wife reveal that Brat received death threats for using a white sperm donor for her child.

“We received death threats, people told us things like we should miscarry,” Dupart said.

The threats came as a shock to the duo, who also shed light on how few Black men donate their sperm for IVF and how their situation was unique. At the time, after being screened for genetic health, there were a small number of donor options for the couple. According to Dupart, only three percent of donor sperm comes from Black men.

Brat and Harris-Dupart wanted a healthy child above all else.

Even when addressing the issue on “The Tamron Hall Show” in 2023, Da Brat apologized for calling the lone Black sperm donor they did match with “Jiminy Cricket” after being unimpressed by him.

“I didn’t think it would be offensive to anybody,” Da Brat told Hall. “I cracked jokes about almost everybody that I saw; that one just happened to make it in the show. I wasn’t trying to be mean or say anything negative about Black people.”

She later added, “We’re Black; we wanted a Black donor. So it was just misconstrued and taken way out of context.”

When baby True was born in 2023, Da Brat almost wanted to call him “Perfect,” especially considering the couple suffered a difficult miscarriage before finally becoming pregnant.

“I can’t believe he came out of me. Feels like a dream,” Brat said. “He’s perfect in every way.” 

Even as the pair continue to celebrate parenthood, their story of IVF is a common one for those who want to be parents but cannot conceive naturally due to several factors. A 2023 study by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine found that only about 3% of the sperm donors at the nation’s largest donor banks are Black. Those potentially being screened must be checked for diseases and genetic disorders that may be hereditary, as well as for family medical history, factors that can reduce the number of strong candidates.