Jennifer Hudson "dreamed" of spending the holidays with her siblings - all 26 of them.

The 42-year-old singer found out when she was around 16 that her dad had fathered far more children than she realised, and though she never met them all, she longed for them to all get together for a family celebration.

During an appearance on 'Your Mama's Kitchen: Conversations from the Heart of the Home', host Michelle Norris said: “Your father had a big personality. And you went with your siblings and went and found him at some point and found that you had a lot more siblings?”

Jennifer replied: “Yes, a lot of us. Apparently he had 27 children."

The 'Dreamgirls' star explained she hadn't met them all but "that's what we were always told."

She added: “It was my dream to have all of us at this grand Thanksgiving or Christmas table, and we all sit and eat together — that was my goal at 16."

Jennifer, along with the siblings she grew up with, Jason and Julia, were able to meet around six or seven of her brothers and sisters thanks to her father's relatives.

She said: “We found quite a few of us. And I'm the youngest of all of them.

“When my grandma on his side passed, my siblings over there were like, ‘Y’all got a sister that can really sing, you should meet her.'

“And eventually we all came together.”

The talk show host has 14-year-old son David Jr. with ex-partner David Otunga, and thinks it is important for the teenager to grow up around his extended family.

She said: "I love to try to make sure he has the closest thing to him... just making sure he has his cousins circle and that base and foundation. That's part of why I had moved back to Chicago, because I wanted him to have the surroundings of his family around him growing up.

"Now we're here in LA and so we make a point to like, have our Sunday dinners. That's one thing that's very important.

"And then he has cousins that come in and out. One of them is here right now. And so to keep that family burning... So he has that same upbringing or going to see the loved ones I talked to.

"We have a huge family. People like the fact that y'all are this close and your family is this big. Like, all of us are still very connected."