Andrea Kelly is telling her story again on Carlos King’s YouTube channel. The choreographer, who was married to R. Kelly for over a decade, opened up about the abuse she experienced during their relationship and why she chose to keep his last name.
The 50-year-old met the recording artist at the age of 19, and they got married in 1996. However, their union eventually ended in 2009 due to years of abuse, according to Drea. During the talk, King asked Andrea what her former husband was like before he first put his hands on her, referring to the alleged abuse.
“I don’t know because you will never know who a real narcissist is,” she said. Andrea, who also goes by Drea, recalled the one time she saw the true R. Kelly during their relationship.
“I think I’ve seen him show up one time now, and that’s when he laid in my lap and cried like a baby about that little boy in him that haunts him, the little boy in him that was the little boy who couldn’t read, the little boy who could not even look at his street sign and figure out to get home if he was lost because he couldn’t read the signs. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen him since,” she concluded.
During the interview, Drea shared the breaking point that led to her leaving the relationship. The lightbulb moment was when she realized staying in the abusive marriage could lead her daughter into a future abusive relationship. The former couple had three children: Joann, Jay, and Robert Kelly Jr.
Joann Kelly, also known as Buku Abi, has also come out to accuse her father of abuse. In the documentary titled R Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, which was released in October, Buku shares details about the abuse she experienced with the award-winning singer.
Despite the abuse Drea and her kids have experienced, the mother of three is adamant about keeping her ex-husband’s last name. Social media users have argued that the dancer hasn’t worked enough to keep the famed artist’s last name, comparing her to Tina Turner, who also fought to keep Ike’s previous name. While chatting with Carlos, Drea explained why keeping the Kelly name is important and challenged the criticism she perpetually received from strangers.
“You don’t even know what I do!” Drea said, referring to people who said she didn’t “bring anything to the table” like Ms. Tina Turner did. “You don’t even know what my profession is, and at the end of the day, what do I bring to the table if I am the table?”
She continued, “I brought a whole womb. I birthed children, so for women to even say something like that is sad to me…and because you can’t clock what I do, because you haven’t done your research, you think it’s okay to go on the internet and say, ‘she don’t do nothing, Tina Turner did something,’ the only difference between me and Tina Turner is she sang on the stage with Ike, I danced on one with Robert.”
King then asked how Drea feels when people say she should relinquish the surname.
“I don’t give a f**k what you feel,” she replied. “I don’t. At the end of the day, I earned this name in blood, sweat and tears. It’s my kids’ name…when all the sh*t hit the fan, how would you feel if your name is Brown and your kids name is Brown, and your family goes through something, and you tell your kids, ‘Oop! You a Brown by yourself, I’m out!’ No, if my kids gotta go through it as Kelly, they mama going through it as Kelly.”
This isn’t the first time the creative has spoken out about the abuse she endured–she often advocates for domestic violence abuse victims and shares her story in hopes that she can help others. However, she goes into more detail about both the abuse and her life as a whole within her new tell-all book, Under The Red Carpet.