Broadway starlet Audra McDonald made history recently after taking home her record-breaking SIXTH Tony Award in acting. But of course, someone has to rain on her historical feat. Find out what one very opinionated mother had to nick-pick about when you go inside…

Clearly defying the odds with winning SIX Tony Awards in acting, Audra McDonald nabbed a spot in history for her hard work and dedication to her craft. A major accomplishment to be very proud of since no one else has copped six Tonys for acting, and won in each category.

But…as we all know there has to be at least ONE person to pick apart every little detail and twist it to make it seem like something…else.

While giving her tearful Tony Award acceptance speech for winning the leading actress award for her performance in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Audra started with thanking her parents (her father is deceased) for everything they have done to get her to where she is today…including NOT medicating her for hyperactivity.

She said,

“I’m going to start with the most important people in my life cause I don’t want to forget them. I want to thank my mom and my dad up in heaven for disobeying the doctor’s orders and not medicating their hyperactive girl and finding out what she was into instead and pushing her into the theater.”

TIME magazine writer Belinda Luscombe wrote an open letter to Audra, picking apart her opening to her speech from a mother’s point-of-view who DOES medicate their hyperactive child. In the letter she said,

But here’s the thing. One of my kids doesn’t learn very well without the meds. We’ve tried the theater, sports, music, wearing him out, getting him more sleep, meditation, diet, being super-disciplinarian, being not too disciplinarian, art, bribery and shouting. We even tried chewing gum for a while. Oh man, that stuff is hard to remove. We tried a lot of techniques, some of them more seriously than others, because we are human and have jobs and other children. But the thing that worked best, that enabled him to learn to read and stopped him from getting into trouble at school, was medicine.

I’m sure that you were not personally judging me and other concerned parents when you thanked your parents for not putting you on Ritalin. I’m sure you weren’t trying to prescribe from the podium. And obviously, you have thrived, against some serious odds. But damn it, you’re not making it any easier to live with our hard decisions. There’s anxiety and then there’s Audra-induced anxiety, which is more dramatic and accomplished than the regular sort. I’m equally sure your parents also drove you to rehearsal a lot, or ran lines with you, or calmed you down if you had stage fright or told you not to chew your nails. You couldn’t have mentioned that instead?

The chances of anybody winning six Tonys are extremely slender (again, bravo). If by giving my child medication, I have reduced his chances of getting that gong even further, so be it. He may not be Audra-level awesome, but he’s going to get though school. I’m O.K. with that.

The leading Broadway darling didn’t seem to be advising parents to NOT medicate their children (if that’s what works for them), but merely explained what worked for her and her family.  But we all know how much of a hot button issue this is amongst the parenting world.

Some facts we dug up on Audra show she (like any other human being) has been through many obstacles and persevered to get to her history making moment.

In a new interview with NewYork.com, she opened up about the one time she tried to take her own life saying, “As I mentioned in my interview with (CBS Sunday Morning’s) Mo Rocca, it is not something I am ashamed of or proud of. It is just a part of who I am. I’m really open about talking about that experience because it’s in my closet. If I pull it out and say ‘That was what happened’ no one can shock me with it later.”

And a fun fact we learned about Audra is that her A Raisin In The Sun co-star Diddy would start every show by giving her a kiss on her cheek. She revealed, “Sean is such a gentleman and I always felt comfortable with him. We actually had a ritual before the start of every show. Sean would kiss me on the cheek before the start of every performance [of 2004’s A Raisin in the Sun]. He did it every night until the show closed.”

How sweet.  Check out more about the fab chick HERE.

And check out the opening to Audra’s 2014 Tony Award acceptance speech below:

So we have to ask…after hearing Audra’s speech and reading a mother’s response about medicating children with hyperactivity, do you think the journalist was trying to dampen her historical shine? Or do you agree?

SPEAK ON IT!

Photo: Getty

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Original Post Source – http://www.theybf.com/