Matt Harris wasn't ready.
He wasn't ready, at just five years old, to be left in a single-parent household after his parents Tina and Russell Sr. divorced, nor was he ready to bounce around to various tiny apartment complexes in the Chicago area with his mother and seven siblings. Tina frequently worked three jobs to feed nine mouths including herself. There were nights when those mouths went unfed. It wasn't easy, but they made it work. When Matt thinks back on it, he calls his upbringing "tough."
"I think everything happens for a reason, and I don't know if [my] relationship [with my mom] would have been different but I know everything that we've been through has definitely made our bond a lot closer," he said.