Lauryn Hill celebrates her 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day with her sons John Marley and Zion Marley at The Ballroom on May 26, 2015, in West Orange, New Jersey. . Photo:

The singer, who first found fame with The Fugees, wrote and recorded her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, while she was pregnant with her first son, Zion.

“That song is about the revelation that my son was to me,” she told Rock’s Backpages in 1999, per The Guardian. “I had always made decisions for other people, making everybody else happy, and once I had him that was really the first decision that was unpopular for me … And it was the best decision that I could have ever made because I’m the happiest and healthiest that I have ever been.”

Though Lauryn has been performing around the world since the 1990s, she never released a follow-up to her eight-time platinum album. “Everybody asks me, ‘What’s your next move?’, and right now my focus is just being a good mother,” Lauryn told Rock’s Backpages in 1999. “If I could do that properly, I’d be really, really happy. If I could be half the parent that my parents were to me, then I’d be very happy.”

Zion Marley, 27Zion David Marley at the Marley Natural Launch Party on February 6, 2016 in Los Angeles, California.

“Having Zion helped me realize what was really important,” Lauryn told the Los Angeles Times in 1998. “I had made a lot of decisions for other people more than myself — which women tend to do. A lot of people were against my having a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 so early, and at that point in my career. After the success of The Score, I was suddenly forced to go off the road, because I was seven or eight months pregnant. It was one of the first things I did where I put my happiness first.”

On her 1998 multi-platinum album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the singer included the song “To Zion” about deciding to have her first son. “I knew his life deserved a chance,” she wrote in the lyrics. “But everybody told me to be smart / ‘Look at your career’ they said / ‘Lauryn, 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 use your head’ / But instead I chose to use my heart / Now the joy of my world is in Zion.”

Selah Marley, 27Selah Marley is seen arriving to the Carolina Herrera fashion show during New York Fashion Week on February 12, 2024.

Lauryn and Rohan expanded their family with the addition of their daughter Selah Marley on Nov. 12, 1998. Despite The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill winning five Grammys, the singer opted not to record a second album. Instead, she took a huge step back from her career to focus on her family, whom she raised mostly in New Jersey with her mother.

“Music is my biggest passion,” she told W Magazine in 2017. “The thing about music I love, even besides me making my own music, I really fall in love with other people’s music.”

In an interview with Flaunt Digital in 2017, Selah reflected on her family’s legacy and the pressures of being descended from great talents. “My family has instilled greatness in me,” she said. “My legacy has also ensured that I always perform at my highest capability because I have such large shoes to fill … I think both sides of my family have worked really hard to liberate the minds of people around the world, and that is why they have such devoted fans.”

Joshua Marley, 23Rohan Marley and son Joshua Marley speak during Primary Wave x Island Records Presented By Mastercard: One Love Hotel – Marley Brunch on January 24, 2020 in West Hollywood, California.

Like his mother, Joshua is also an artist. He goes by the stage name “YG Marley” and has collaborated on music with Lauryn. The duo performed Joshua’s latest singles “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” and “Survival” on The Tonight Show in May 2024.

John Marley, 21Rohan Marley and John Nesta Marley.

Sara Marley, 16Sara Marley attends Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love” New York screening on February 12, 2024.

Micah Hill, 13Micah Hill and Derrick Rose.