After making history by becoming the first woman to be elected as the District Attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis has reemerged in the limelight for her investigation into former President Donald Trump.
Fani, who is used to prosecuting high-profile cases, charged 19 co-defendants, including Donald Trump, concerning efforts by the former president and his backers to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. This development has propelled Fani into the national spotlight, with Donald Trump himself lashing out against her, repeatedly calling her “phoney”, “racist”, and other things. Meanwhile, some people have still been wondering about the basics of the internet’s famous prosecutor. In this writing, we shall therefore discuss Fani Willis’s parents.
Who Are Fani Willis’s Parents?
Fani Taifa Willis’s name is actually “Fani (fah-nee)”. Taifa is her middle name, and her last name is Willis. Talking about it, she has said her father who was a Black Panther and in turn very Afrocentric, decided to give a name that is Swahili. Fani loves to share with others that Fani means “prosperous” and Taifa means “people.”
Fani’s father was therefore always so involved with bringing her up the way she has turned out.
Speaking of Fani’s mother, Fani did not spend a lot of time with her.
Meet John Clifford Floyd, Fani Willis’s Father
Fani’s dad John C Floyd, AKA John Clifford Floyd III, was born in October 1943. So, he turned 79 years old in 2022. The New York Times has described him as a longtime civil rights activist and defense lawyer. He has practiced law while being affiliated with his own firm John C Floyd III & Associates.
While previously, i.e., before he went to law school, he was a member of the Black Panthers. And that is something even his daughter Fani is very proud of. About her dad, she has also said “My father will tell you that he’s been arrested so many times that he couldn’t even tell you … “.
One of the first things that Fani said her father constantly told her is that everyone is entitled to dignity. And so that is something she has always tried to pass down. That is one thing she hopes to not just impart on her children, and her staff, but also to everyone she comes in contact with.
Fani’s dad actually gave her a file clerk job in his office when she was a child.
Meet Delores Floyd, Fani Willis’s Mother
There are news channels claiming that Fani Willis’s father raised her in Los Angeles as a single father. Yet, none detailed when and why Fani’s folks started living separately or called off their marriage. What is understood is when Fani was in the first grade, her family moved to Washington, D.C.
Delores Trivers Floyd is not Fani’s biological mother but a step one. Long after Fani was born (in 1971) her dad married Delores in 1989. Unfortunately, on 7 June 2012, Delores passed away due to complications from a brain tumor.
Related FAQs
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Where Are Fani Willis’s Parents From?
Fani Willis’s parents seemingly come from California where her mom returned back to after they divorced.
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How Long Were Fani Willis’s Parents Married?
Fani Willis’s parents divorced, and her mother eventually moved back to California, while she mostly stayed with her father.
She herself has talked about a time when she was a nine-year-old and was being raised by “a single dad”. And so while staying with him, she studied political science at Howard University, graduating cum laude in 1993, then moved to Atlanta to go to Emory University School of Law, where she graduated in 1996 with a Juris Doctor.
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How Many Kids Did Fani Willis’s Parents Have?
Fani Willis is seemingly the only child of her biological parents. But, she also does have step-siblings. They are apparently Delores’s kids’. They are Robert Earl Sumner of Palmdale, California who turned 61 in Maya 2023, and Julie Monique Sumner of Los Angeles, who reached the age of 51 in October 2022.
Moreover, Fani herself is also a proud single parent of two adult daughters. Fani has talked about being a single mom for most of her career. She divorced the baby’s father in 2005 when the children were very young, four and five years old. As a result, Fani says, her girls always had a mother that worked. She always had a couch in her office so that they could come there and sleep as she prepared for trial.
On the day Fani took the Georgia bar exam, she met Fred Willis, the father of her girls, who was working an extra job as a videographer. They got married later in 1996.
In May 2022, as Fani turned 50, she took to social media to talk about wearing as many titles as weaves until that point in her life. Among all of it, i.e., attorney, counselor, Ms., divorcée, boss, friend, companion, Madam DA, she said she “must admit” that her favorite title of all time is “Mommy”.
The same time around, Fani also had teasingly whined on social media about her now all grown-up daughters giving her a tough time. “Little kids are so much easier than adult kids. 😑”, she wrote. Yet a year before Fani was also super happy when her girls both did well in college. One of them, 24 years old now, was studying Journalism at a university.
