Jennifer Hudson has a lot to be thankful for this holiday season -- opening up for the first time about how a trip to visit her fiance saved her life.
"He wanted me to come out to Florida with him instead of going to Chicago," Hudson tells Ebony Magazine.
Hudson was supposed visit her family in Chicago in Oct. 2008 -- but decided last minute to travel to Florida and visit her fiance', David Otunga, instead.
Her mother, brother and nephew were shot and killed at her mother's home on Oct. 24, 2008.
"I flew out to see him; that's why I'm still here," Hudson says. "That's one of the things that saved my life. Because I could have been home with my mom then."
William Balfour -- the estranged husband of Jennifer's sister, Julia -- has been charged with the murders.