Source: SplashNews.com / Splash News – Photo of kidnapper Gloria Williams
Truth be told, Kamiyah Mobley would still like to see Gloria Williams, the woman who kidnapped her hours after she was born in 1998 and raised her until 2017 when Kamiyah was found. Williams was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2018 for her actions.
“I do,” she told Robin Roberts during a recent interview on Nightline to promote Lifetime’s documentary on her situation and TV movie, Stolen By My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story. “I just want to let her know I’m okay.”
That, however, creates drama for her though, as Kamiyah’s biological mother, Shanara, is still very much hurt by losing her daughter for so many years and missing out on the chance to actually raise her. In 2018, Shanara admitted she at one point wasn’t speaking to Kamiyah because of how attached she still was to Gloria, whom she was still calling “mom.”
“I shouldn’t have to compete with a kidnapper – she has to pick one of us,” she said at the time. “It’s like a tug of war between us. Whenever I feel like I’m winning her back, boom, the other side pulls me down. Nobody acknowledges my pain. I feel like I’m being robbed all over again every time she reaches out to my daughter.”
But Kamiyah says she’s making an effort to nurture that relationship with her biological mom and family in Florida while still maintaining her relationship with Gloria and that family in South Carolina.
“I actually put work in to try and make these two families happy,” she said.
And when describing her relationship with her biological mother now, Kamiyah admits it could be better.
“It’s a rollercoaster with us,” she said. “I feel like she just thinks everything with me has Gloria written over it. Maybe that’s it. I don’t know.”
She says the fact that she doesn’t hold true animosity towards Gloria contributes to that.
“I’ve never really felt no malice,” she said. “The reason people kind of have a hard time [with that] is because they haven’t been in the situation. That’s just how I feel with that. They can’t tell me anything to really help me at this point.”
But the good news is, her relationship with her biological father, Craig Aiken, is good. She calls him “daddy,” and she recounted that when they initially were reunited, it was an easy bond.
“We just kind of hugged each other,” she said. “We could have been quiet in the room and felt peace looking at each other.”
Overall though, Kamiyah said she’s been doing her best to make both of the sides she considers family happy, and she’s going about it in the way that works best for her. She’s proud of the life she’s carved out for herself now, a 21-year-old, after the last few years of public turmoil.
“Because of my experiences in the last couple of years, it’s kind of forced me to have an open mind,” she said. “I think I’m a pretty good aunt. I think I’m a pretty good sister. I think I’m a pretty good person. I think I’m alright.”
