Kelis is getting candid about her health journey a year after her husband's death.
In a new Instagram clip, the "Feed Them" singer, 43, opened up about how Mike Mora's death and diagnosis with stage 4 stomach cancer impacted her as she continues to focus on her and her family's wellness. Mora died in March 2022 at age 37, after being diagnosed with the cancer two years earlier in 2020.
"It's been exactly a year… that's crazy to me," Kelis shared in the post's caption. "I'm a very private person generally, especially when there is family involved. But there is no denying the impact and evolution my husband's passing has had on my life."
"I get asked all the time how I started this journey. It's a much longer conversation but in short what we were dealing with here pushed me so deep into understanding our bodies and how our minds and emotions are so interlocked you can not treat one without the other. Our thoughts and intentions are as powerful and key as our skin health and fitness," she continued. "I want to live well and this is me sharing what I know to be true."
Within the Instagram video — which was posted in three different parts — the Bounty & Full founder explained that she started on her wellness and farming journey when she was pregnant years ago. Kelis has three kids — sons Knight, 13, and Shepherd, 7, as well as daughter Galilee, who was born in September 2020. "I just wanted to eat well," she said. "When I got pregnant that's when I really started to care and think about it."
And when her husband began fighting cancer, which he revealed was happening in September 2021, Kelis said things changed even more as they looked into hyperbaric chambers and ozone therapy. Ozone therapy, which Kelis said was often grouped with chemotherapy in countries like Russia, Japan and Cuba, was "game-changing." But unfortunately, Mora's tumor came back and "started to spread."
"We ended up meeting with this beautiful, brilliant man who actually invented the hyperbaric chamber. He gave us a recipe and a list of these mushrooms to start taking." While Kelis said she had already taken something similar, the man gave her family a specific recipe that he hoped would be beneficial for them.
"We don't know where to go," she said. "We go to doctors for things that don't make any sense. Really, it's our foods. It's how we're eating, it's how we're living and breathing and putting out feet in the soil."
Because of that, Kelis said she began to make what she calls brain food. While it was too late for her husband to eat, she further explained the importance of staying away from stress. "Just to add to that, every doctor we saw, every specialist, every nutritionist, every human being we found that had any expertise in this whatsoever was like, stress kills," she said.
"I moved to the farm and we wanted to separate ourselves from all the silly things that had us stressed out and worried and angst and all these things that didn't really matter," she said. "So when you think about wellness and we think about health, it really is something that you can take control of with a little bit of thought. Just think a little bit more about it and always support your local farmers. Support your Black farmers. Why? Because we care."
Last September, Kelis opened up to PEOPLE about how she decided to focus on cherishing every moment of their time together following her husband's cancer diagnosis. "It wasn't something that was sudden. We were able to prepare, and love, and say goodbye," she said, noting that the children were "always super aware of" Mora's condition.
"We were able to spend the time that we needed to, as much as we were given, the best way that we could," Kelis continued. "Is it a great situation? No, it's freaking awful, but I am grateful."
The musician and chef added that she made a conscious choice to "accept" the circumstances at the time. "It was out of our hands from the beginning," she said. "We're just grateful for what we had. It's part of life."
"It doesn't change the fact that I'm heartbroken... but it does change how I choose to approach it," she continued. "It reminds you how short time is, and how we don't have any control. I want to control what I can control — how I treat the people around me. I'm really big on celebrating people when they're here. I don't feel like it's as useful when they're gone."
.jpg "Kelis Explains How Her Husband's Death Impacted Her Wellness Journey a Year Later: 'I Want to Live Well'")
