Jennifer Hudson shines in a strapless, curve-hugging icy-blue dress and with a sleek blow out on the December/January cover of Ebony. While she’s smiling on the cover, the Oscar-winning singer opens up about an incredibly difficult subject in the accompanying story: how the decision to visit her fiancée David Otunga in Florida for a WWE event, as opposed to returning home to Chicago, saved her life.

Hudson’s mother, brother and nephew were brutally and tragically murdered in Chicago three years ago, and since she was visiting Otunga down south, she narrowly missed being a victim of the incident that claimed her family members’ lives. Her sister’s estranged husband committed the crimes in Oct. 2008.

“That’s one of the things that saved my life, because I could have been home with my mom then,” she says. “[David] wanted me to come out to Florida instead of going to Chicago. I flew out to see him; that’s why I’m still here.” It was fate, destiny and serendipity.

“I’ve never said that before, and I can’t believe I just said that now,” Hudson finished. “But I didn’t know. He was just like, ‘I’m going to this wrestling thing, and it’s in Tampa. I’m going out there now, so you can come out there and see me versus going home.’” Sometimes higher powers work in mysterious ways, in a case such as this.

Hudson and Otunga, who are parents of a two-year-old son, have been engaged since 2008 but have no immediate plans to wed or set a date. Given the tragedy, Hudson had a lot to process and isn’t quite ready for a lavish ceremony. She admitted, “After that happened, I was like, ‘I don’t know what I want.’ A lot of things have happened in my life. There are a lot of things that I need to get adjusted to before I do anything else. That’s how I feel about it.”

It’s likely that Hudson will appear in court in February 2012 to testify against her brother-in-law. Stay strong, Jennifer.

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