Latifah Loves To Visit Her Dead Brother

Queen Latifah heads back to her native New Jersey when the pressure of stardom gets too much for her and shares a beer and a chat with her dead brother LANCE.

The rapper-turned-actress admits she enjoys visiting the cemetery where her late brother, who was killed in a motorcycle accident when her career was taking off, was laid to rest - because it brings her great peace.

The CHICAGO star was brought to tears on a recent taping of US chat show INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO when host James Lipton asked her to describe her visits to her dead sibling's grave.

She said, "It's hard because it's the only cemetery that I don't feel uncomfortable or spooked by because so many of my family members are in this place and my brother's there, and it's, like, the closest I can get to him.

"I would take a beer... and go up there and sit and talk... Sometimes things happen so fast for us, this whole stardom thing, and my anonymity was starting to be gone and it would get heavy sometimes.

"So I would go up to where my brother was buried and sit on the ground, look at the sky, talk to God, drink a brew, talk to WINKY (brother's nickname), cry, laugh, pray and then I would be alright after a while and I'd be ready to fight some more."

Latifah, real name Dana Owens, had her brother's motorcycle key "dipped in gold" after the accident - she wears it on a chain around her neck.