All About Charli xcx's Parents, Jon and Shameera Aitchison (and How They Inspired the Pop Star's Hit Song 'Apple')

Mar. 15, 2025

Charli XCX poses at the 2022 Wrapped Playground Event featuring Charli XCX at Goya Studios on December 01, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.Photo:Michael Kovac/Getty

Michael Kovac/Getty

Charli xcx’s parents, Jon and Shameera, took their daughter to perform her first-ever rave set when she was a teenager.

“It was a very exciting, new world for me,” the singer, born Charlotte Emma Aitchison, toldHighsnobietyin 2018. “It definitely was a little bit surreal though to see [my parents] in a rave. I never really envisioned that that would happen.”

As Charli’s career continued to grow from there, her parents remained supportive. The singer told Highsnobiety, “I’ve been really lucky with that. They’ve been super supportive and they’ve been really cool,” before noting that even at that first rave set, Jon and Shameera were “just really proud” to see her performing.

Here’s everything to know about Charli xcx’s parents, Jon and Shameera.

Her dad was an entrepreneur and her mom was a nurse and flight attendant

Charli XCX accepts the Hitmaker of the Year award onstage at the Variety Hitmakers Brunch at nya West on December 07, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty

Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty

Charli was born in Cambridge on Aug. 2, 1992, and is Shameera and Jon’s only child.

The singer’s father worked as an entrepreneur and show booker for a music venue near the family’s home, while her mother was a nurse and flight attendant. Raised in Essex, Charli comes from a multiracial background with her dad being Scottish and her mom being of Gujarati Indian descent.

Shameera grew up in Uganda but had to flee the country with her family in the 1970s after former presidentIdi Amin ordered the expulsionof the country’s Asian population — the majority of whom were Indian-Ugandan.

Sharing her mother’s story in a 2019 interview withThe Feed, Charli explained, “[My mom’s] parents had to really fight to look after all of their children and moved them from Africa to the U.K. with money rolled up inside toothpaste tubes because they had to hide it otherwise it would just get taken from them.”

“Their story is a really inspiring one,” Charli continued. “And it makes me realize how lucky I am.”

Charli’s heritage played a big role in her childhood

Charli XCX visits SiriusXM’s ‘The Howard Stern Show’ at SiriusXM Studios on October 02, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee.Tibrina Hobson/Getty

Tibrina Hobson/Getty

The “Apple” singer has often reflected on the difficulties of growing up with a White father and an Indian mother tellingVogue Singaporein 2024, “I grew up in two half-lives, I suppose.”

“When I would go and visit my mum’s family, I felt very Indian,” she continued. “It was all the classic scenes of mynaniandbappacooking with Bollywood films playing in the background and everybody speaking in Gujarati.”

“But then I’d go home to this other world which was largely white,” Charli added. “It was almost like I would experience the Indian part of my identity only on the weekends. I never quite felt like I fit into either world, which I think commonly happens with mixed-race kids.”

The Grammy nominee has also explained that that feeling trickled its way into school where her classmates made “a lot of jokes” based on stereotypes and bullied her for her eyebrows and hair.

“There were a lot of jokes from my schoolmates about corner shops and things like that,” Charli toldVogue Singapore. “But also, my grandparents actually did have a corner shop. So it was very confusing, you know?” she said while laughing.

In another 2024 interview withGQ, the singer expanded on the isolation she felt at school because she was mixed-race, disclosing, “I always felt like a loser.”

“I had friends, but my school was full of blonde white girls and I was this half-Indian girl with frizzy hair and different interests,” she continued. “That always made me feel a little bit rejected. I thought if I made music, people would think I was interesting … Deep down, one of my biggest fears was being boring.”

Despite having a tough time at school, Charli acknowledged toVogue Singaporethat she now receives praise for the features her classmates once made fun of. “Now everyone is always complimenting me on my hair and eyebrows,” the singer told the outlet. “So to all the people who made fun of me, the joke’s on you I guess.”

They’ve supported Charli’s career from the start

Charli XCX at Billboard Women In Music 2024 held at YouTube Theater on March 6, 2024 in Inglewood, California.Rich Polk/Billboard via Getty

Rich Polk/Billboard via Getty

Charli’s musical journey began when she was 14 years old and her parents have been supportive since day one.

“My mum, in particular, was terrified,” Charli toldGQin 2024. “She grew up in Uganda and never really drank, never smoked a cigarette. She came from a Muslim family where the idea of a 14-year-old going to a rave was completely alien.” The family ended up arriving for the show so early that they caught the organizers still setting up the venue.

As Charli continued to perform at more raves, she toldGQthat her parents subsequently “got it” and they’ve continued to support their daughter, most recently attending her 2024 Brat Arena Tour show in Birmingham.

Jon recovered from cancer

Charli XCX attends the H&M&LONDON event at Copper Box Arena on September 12, 2024 in London, England.Mike Marsland/WireImage

Mike Marsland/WireImage

In another candid moment from her 2024 interview withGQ, Charli revealed that her career once got in the way of being with her dad while he had cancer.

At the time, her career was burgeoning with the release of her first top 10 hit single “Boom Clap," and the pressures of pop stardom began to seep through to her personal life.

“I was travelling constantly for two years,” Charli explained toGQ. “My dad got cancer and recovered from it [in that time] and I didn’t see him because I was just travelling.”

Charli’s song “Apple” is about her parents

Host and musical guest Charli XCX on Saturday Night Live on November 16, 2024.Will Heath/NBC via Getty

Will Heath/NBC via Getty

While many knowCharli’s viral track “Apple”for its TikTok dance popularized over the summer of 2024, it also is a song about her relationship with her parents.

In a June 2024 interview with comedians Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers on theirLas Culturistaspodcast, Charli disclosed that “Apple” is about her “kinda sticky relationship” with Jon and Shameera.

“With this record, it’s been very much that I came in with what I wanted to say, whereas on previous records it’s not actually really been like this,” theBratartist said. “With this record, it’s been so lyrically led. Like I’ve been like, I want to write a song about my kinda sticky relationship with my mom and dad, which is ‘Apple.’ ”

The song’s lyrics build off a popular idiom used to describe traits parents pass on to their children with Charli singing: “I guess the apple don’t fall far from the tree / ‘Cause I’ve been looking at you so long / Now I only see me.”

source: people.com