Gabby Sidibe Shares Rare Pics of Her Lookalike Mom & Grandma for Mother's Day

Gabby Sidibe warmed her fans' hearts over the weekend by sharing a pair of pics of her gorgeous mother and grandmother. The resemblance between the three women is uncanny, and on top of that, Gabby and her mom also share similar interests in the entertainment industry.

Like many other celebrities, Gabby Sidibe took to Instagram on Mother’s Day to pay tribute to the most important women in her life: her mother, Alice Tan Ridley, and her grandmother.

The award-winning actress shared first an old black and white picture of her grandmother and “The Cosby Show” actor Malcolm Jamal Warner, admitting that she didn’t know where the pic came from and asking fans to “not make it weird.”

She also posted a collage with two pictures, one of her with her mother Alice, and one of Alice with her mother, Gabby’s grandma.

“My mom and her mom, and me and mine,” she captioned the post.

TALENTED MOTHER, TALENTED DAUGHTER

Gabby’s mother, Alice Tan Ridley, is also a talented artist. She sang in the NYC subway system for over 30 years before having her big break on “America’s Got Talent” in 2010, and the release of her first album “Never Lost My Way” two years ago.

"I've been singing all my life, and I hope to sing until I'm out of here," Ridley told Refinery29 in 2016. "That's been my dedication: to show people that you can still do what you love to do.”

"My mom always told me that she never wanted to have a daughter,” Sidibe said.

Gabby, who made her acting debut in the 2009 film “Precious,” was always there for her mother, supporting her every step of the way even though the support wasn’t mutual at times.

“I really didn't want her to do that part that she did in the movie. But I'm so happy that she did," Ridley said, referring to Sidibe's Precious role. And continued:

"People still today see her as that person who went through that life. When they see me performing in the subway or onstage, they ask if I'm Precious' mother — and I tell them no! My daughter's name is not Precious. Her name is Gabourey Sidibe."

A TOUGH LESSON FROM MOM

Although Gabby didn’t have the tumultuous upbringing of her character, she faced some hardships in her childhood.

Her father, a Senegalese immigrant who drove a cab, moved his second wife and newborn son into the house he shared with Gabby and Alice under the rouse that the woman was his “cousin.”

After discovering the lie, Alice moved out of the house with Gabby and her brother Ahmed, and she raised them as a single mother with the help of her sister.

“My mom always told me that she never wanted to have a daughter,” Sidibe said of the toughest lessons she learned as a child. “I know this sounds harsh and fu**ed up, but what it set up for me as a child was that being a Black woman was not going to be easy. That’s what my mom told me.”

And added:

“She said she never wanted to have a daughter because girls have a really hard life. Those were the first lessons I got about being a Black woman. Today, as an adult, I would really like to erase that narrative from my life.”

ERASING THE NARRATIVE

Gabby has done more than deleting that narrative; she has rewritten a completely new one thanks to her talent and persistence.

She has starred on several films and series, including “American Horror Story,” and the musical drama “Empire,” where she also made her directorial debut on TV last month.

“Directing is weirdly a call back to my own life, which might be narcissistic or egotistical, but art is everywhere,” she told Essence of the opportunity. “Stories are everywhere, and everything makes an imprint on me. And sometimes I take those imprints, and I remix them, and I bring them into fruition in another medium in directing. That’s what I get to do here. I hope people laugh and I hope people gasp.”