In the southeast corner of New York City’s Central Park, Tracee Ellis Ross retraced the steps she once took to walk home. Back on the same bustling sidewalks decades later, she experienced nostalgia many expect when returning to their childhood roots.
Ross is the first to acknowledge that her upbringing — where “home” was the five-star Sherry Netherland Hotel and “mom” was singer and actress Diana Ross — was far from ordinary.
“Andy Warhol Painted me. Marvin Gaye called the house,” she recalled to TODAY’s Willie Geist during the Aug. 16 episode of Sunday Sitdown. “There’s things that are just not normal.”
The actor, who’s currently promoting the second season of her globe-trotting Roku series “Solo Traveling With Tracee Ellis Ross,” which premiered in July, strolled down memory lane with Willie. She told the TODAY host that even though she grew up around Diana Ross’ extraordinary career — and the unique perks that came with it — her mother tried to preserve some normalcy for her and her siblings.
“The way my mom framed it is that was her job. And so she woke us up for school in the morning, She sat with us for breakfast. She recorded while we were sleeping,” Tracee Ellis Ross explained.
Eventually, Ross went on to establish an acting career of her own, starring in hit comedies like “Black-ish” and “Girlfriends,” and most recently making her Broadway debut in the solo play “Every Brilliant Thing.”
The latest season of her travel show includes a trip to another place that’s steeped in Ross’ childhood memories: Gstaad and Rolle, Switzerland, where the actor started boarding school at age 13.
Returning to the school for the first time in 40 years was like “walking into a time machine,” she told Willie.
“I was moved to tears numerous times revisiting those feelings of being away from home and the anxiety that I had around that,” Ross said. “And also the deep gratitude I have for that experience that my mother gave me and my sisters.”
When Willie asked whether she found herself reflecting on what her younger self would think of the life she’s built, Ross said her emotional trip felt like looking in “both directions” — past and present.
“It was like the little girl looking at me and me looking at the little girl,” she said. “This combination of like, ‘Whoa, look what I’ve done. Look how afraid I was.’”
Talia Wexler is an editorial intern at TODAY.com and an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California majoring in journalism.
