McFadden was born in Wilmington, Del., the oldest child of William and Mary McFadden, who divorced when she was 11. Soon after, she moved to San Jose with her mother and younger brother. "I was raised, for the most part, by a single mom who was a nurse," she told a Sacramento women's group in 2012. "I had a mother who believed in her children, and wanted both of us to be able to do whatever it was that we wanted to do."

Source: Los Angeles Times March 23, 2018 14:14 UTC