JENNIFER HUDSON SAYS PUNK SAVED HER LIFE!

Jennifer Hudson unknowingly made a life-changing decision when she paid a visit to her fiancé, David Otunga, three years ago.

The songstress reveals she was supposed to be in Chicago with her mother, brother and nephew on the day they were all shot and killed in Oct. 2008. Instead, Hudson opted to fly to Florida to watch Otunga, 31, fight in a World Wrestling Entertainment match.

"He wanted me to come out to Florida with him instead of going to Chicago. I flew out to see him; that's why I'm still here," Hudson, 30, says in the December/January issue of Ebony. "That's one of the things that saved my life. Because I could have been home with my mum then."

The impact from her decision clearly had an effect on Hudson, who has avoided speaking publicly about the tragic murders.

"I've never said that before, and I can't believe I just said that now," she continued. "But I didn't know. He was just like, 'I'm going to this wrestling thing, and it's in Tampa. I'm going out there now, so you can come out there and see me versus going home.' "

Otunga, a former VH1 reality show contestant, is a Harvard-trained attorney and professional wrestler. He is also the father of Hudson's 2-year-old son, David Jr.

Last year, Hudson briefly spoke about the murders during a "Behind the Music" segment, in which she said the aftermath felt like "a blur."

"It was like I was outside of myself," the Oscar-winning actress said, adding that the tragedy sent her into seclusion for weeks.

"For almost two weeks straight," she said. " inside one room with just family and friends coming in and out. I prayed when I'd get up in the morning and prayed before I lay down at night."

William Balfour, the estranged husband of Hudson's sister Julia, has been charged with all three murders that left the singer's mother Darnell, older brother Jason and 7-year-old nephew Julian, dead.

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