Chaka Khan Age, Biography Update, Net Worth, Daughter, Children & Husband

Yvette Marie Stevens, born March 23, 1953, is better known as Chaka Khan. She is an American singer and songwriter whose career began in the early 1970s as the lead singer of the funk band Rufus. Often called the “Queen of Funk,” she recorded hits with Rufus like “Tell Me Something Good,” “Sweet Thing,” “Do You Love What You Feel,” and the platinum single “Ain’t Nobody.” Her first solo album included the number-one R&B hit “I’m Every Woman,” which later became a pop hit for Whitney Houston. Khan also had success with “What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me” and made history in 1984 as the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit with a rapper on her cover of Prince’s “I Feel for You.” Other well-known songs include “Through the Fire” and “Higher Love,” her 1986 collaboration with Steve Winwood that reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Profile Summary

Age

Yvette Marie Stevens was born on March 23, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois.

Biography

Yvette Marie Stevens was born on March 23, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois, to Charles Stevens and Sandra Coleman. She has said her father was a beatnik who struggled with heroin addiction. She grew up in the Hyde Park area on Chicago’s South Side. After her parents divorced when she was 10, her father left for more than five years but returned when she was in her late teens. Khan has described her Catholic upbringing as “terrible” and said it was a “great relief” when she left it. Her sister Yvonne is a singer known as Taka Boom, and her brother Mark started the funk group Jamaica Boys and was also in the soul group Aurra. She also has two half-sisters, Zaheva and Tammy.

Khan credits her grandmother for sparking her love of music by introducing her to jazz as a child. As a preteen, she became interested in rhythm and blues and, at age 11, formed a girl group called the Crystalettes with her sister Taka. In the late 1960s, Khan attended civil rights rallies with her father’s second wife, Connie, who strongly supported the movement. She joined the Black Panther Party in 1967 after meeting activist Fred Hampton, a fellow Chicago native. When she was 13, a Yoruba Babalawo priest gave her the name Chaka Adunne Aduffe Hodarhi Karifi during a naming ceremony. Chaka means “woman of fire.”

In 1969, when she was 16, Khan ran away from home after a violent argument with her mother. She said, “She had me up against a wall by my neck. My feet touched air.” After leaving the Black Panther Party, she dropped out of high school, where she had attended Calumet High School and Kenwood High School (now Kenwood Academy). She started performing with small groups in Chicago, including Cash McCall’s group Lyfe, which featured her boyfriend Hassan Khan. Chaka and Hassan married in 1970.

After Baby Huey died in 1970, Khan was asked to replace him in Baby Huey & the Babysitters, but the group broke up a year later. In 1972, while performing with local bands, two members of a new group called Rufus noticed her. When their lead singer, Paulette McWilliams, decided to leave, she suggested Khan as her replacement. Rufus soon caught the attention of musician Ike Turner, who invited them to Los Angeles to record at his studio, Bolic Sound. Turner wanted Khan to join his group as an Ikette, but she turned him down, saying she was “really happy with Rufus.” Still, she said Ike’s interest gave her confidence.

Personal life

Khan has been married twice and has two children: a daughter, Indira Milini, and a son, Damien Holland. She married Hassan Khan in 1970 when she was 17, but they divorced soon after. Indira Milini’s father is Rahsaan Morris.

Khan married her second husband, Richard Holland, in 1976. Their marriage reportedly created tension between Khan and some members of Rufus, particularly Andre Fischer. Holland wanted her to change her stage image, but she declined. After their separation in 1979, Khan worked in the studio with Ike Turner, whom she described as a “real inspiration and a catalyst emotionally and in other ways as well” during that challenging time. Holland filed for divorce in 1980, citing “irreconcilable differences.”

In the mid-1980s, during her solo career, Khan dated a schoolteacher from the Chicago area. After their relationship ended, she moved to Europe, initially living in London before purchasing a home in Germany. She spent time in a village in the Rhine Valley and also lived in Mannheim.

Khan describes herself as spiritual but not affiliated with any religious group. She has strongly criticized her Catholic upbringing, calling it a “negative” religion. She said: “I had a heavy Catholic upbringing and Catholicism is terrible; it’s the reason there were slaves. Mass every morning at seven o’clock during Lent. Shit. It was a great relief when I finally realized what I was into and got out of it.”

Khan follows a vegan diet, which she adopted to lose weight and manage high blood pressure and Type-2 diabetes.

Khan has struggled with substance abuse, including cocaine, heroin, prescription medication, and alcohol. She ended her drug use in 1999 in her late 40s. In 2016, she and her sister entered rehabilitation for prescription medication dependency, which began after she took medication for an injury. She also struggled with alcoholism until 2005, when she declared herself sober.

In 2006, Khan’s son Damien Holland, then 29, was accused of murder after 17-year-old Christopher Bailey was shot and killed during an argument over a girlfriend at Khan’s home. Khan testified on behalf of her son. Holland stated the shooting was accidental. He was found not guilty in the criminal trial but was held responsible in a civil case.

Discography

• Chaka (1978)
• Naughty (1980)
• What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me (1981)
• Chaka Khan (1982)
• Echoes of an Era (1982)
• I Feel for You (1984)
• Destiny (1986)
• ck (1988)
• The Woman I Am (1992)
• Come 2 My House (1998)
• ClassiKhan (2004)
• Funk This (2007)
• Hello Happiness (2019)
• Chakzilla (2026)

Net Worth

Her net worth is estimated to be between $10 million and $30 million.