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At 56, Cree Summer admitted that raising a child alone was the scariest experience of her life.

Becoming a single mother was her worst nightmare. Then it happened. Cree Summer, the beloved Freddie Brooks from “A Different World,” watched a nearly decade-long love story with musician Angelo Pullen fall apart, leaving her alone with two young daughters and a heart full of terror.

Cree Summer’s story is not one of quiet collapse but of fierce reinvention. Meeting musician Angelo Pullen at 40, she welcomed two daughters—Brave Littlewing in 2011 and Hero Peregrine in 2013—at a time when Hollywood often sidelines women, especially mothers. When their relationship ended nearly ten years later, her deepest fear came true: she became a single mom. Instead of hiding, she named that fear out loud, calling it the greatest of her life, and then chose to walk through it.

While her personal life was unraveling, her professional life only grew more powerful. Summer poured herself into voice acting, building an extraordinary career far beyond the fame of “A Different World.” With more than 700 characters to her name—from Elmyra in “Tiny Toons” and Susie Carmichael in “Rugrats” to Princess Kida in “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”—she transformed vulnerability into strength, proving that a broken chapter can still write a legendary life.