Michaela DePrince's mother died a day after the ballerina's death

The adoptive mother of ballerina Michaela Mabinti DePrince, who died suddenly last week aged 29, died less than 24 hours later of an unrelated illness. Elaine DePrince died on Sept. 11 during “a routine procedure in preparation for surgery,” according to a statement from family spokesman Jess Volinsky. He was 77 years old.

“The past few days have been more difficult than most people imagine as the family also deals with the death of Michaela's adoptive mother, Elaine DePrince,” Wolinsky wrote in a statement on Facebook.

Michaela's death, on September 10, was announced on September 13. No reason was disclosed. A day later, the family revealed that Elaine, who had adopted Michaela from Sierra Leone when she was four, had died unexpectedly the day before her daughter's death.

“As incredible as it may seem, the two deaths were completely unrelated,” Volinsky said. “The only way we can understand the ignorant is that Elaine, who had already lost three children many years ago, was spared the pain of losing a fourth child by the grace of God.”

Elaine and her husband Charles, who died in 2020, adopted three sons with hemophilia in the 1980s, according to the New York Times; All three contracted HIV and died in the 1990s, as did many others with hemophilia. Inspired by one of their adopted sons, Michael, DePrince flew to Sierra Leone in 1999 to adopt a girl orphaned by civil war. Michaela DePrince, born Mabinti Bangura, lost her parents in the war and shared a bed in an orphanage, called Mabintio.

“I got a call from the adoption agency,” Elaine told NBC News in 2017. We have two of them.'” When Ellen was told that Michaela had been rejected by several families because of the skin condition vitiligo, she decided to adopt both, naming them Michaela Mabinti DePrince and Mia Mabinti DePrince.

Inspired by a photo of a ballerina at a very young age, Michaela began studying ballet after moving to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and later Vermont. She studied at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theater in New York, appeared in the award-winning documentary First Position, and starred in Beyoncé's 2016 visual album Lemonade. At age 17, he joined the Dance Theater of Harlem as the youngest member of the company and went on to perform at the Dutch National Ballet and the Boston Ballet.

“What the family is going through right now is truly unimaginably painful,” Volinsky said in the family's statement. “Grieving two family members who died in a 24-hour period is sad and devastating. We continue to ask for privacy and appreciate your guidance in sharing misinformation and assumptions in this post.”

Elaine DePrince was a mother of 11 children and worked as a special education teacher. He is survived by his children Mia, Amy, Jay, Mariel, Bee, Eric and Adam.