Mounting claims and accusations of sexual coercion, misconduct and abuse continue to stack up against singer and music producer R. Kelly. In recent months, several women have come forward detailing the emotional and physical trauma they’ve allegedly experienced at the hands of the Chicago-based singer-songwriter. However, for the most part, R. Kelly’s ex-wife, Andrea Kelly, has refrained from speaking out publicly about the allegations or the abuse in their relationship for nearly a decade—but, now she’s opening up again.
In an exclusive interview on TV One’s daytime talk show Sister Circle, Andrea Kelly, spoke out about the domestic abuse allegedly caused by the R&B singer during their marriage from 1996 to 2009. Kelly, who is a choreographer and dancer, detailed for viewers the moment when she finally walked away from her ex-husband.
“That day, I just remember playing sick all day,” explained Kelly, while trying to fight back tears. “I went and got in the bed, and I was just like, ‘Okay, what are you going to do?’ And something just said, ‘end it.’ That was my first answer.”
Kelly said she prayed for guidance and that God steered her in the direction of a questionnaire on a domestic violence website.
“I remember going out on the balcony,” Kelly recalled. “We [Kelly and family] were at the Wyndham Grand Bay Hotel. I’ll never forget it…Coconut Grove. I actually climbed up on the balcony, and I had one foot propped up against the wall and my other foot I climbed up on the ledge. I remember looking down, and it’s almost like God was able to let me see the future. I saw my body lying in blood, and I saw the ambulance coming. I saw housekeeping come out, and they were pointing up, and they [housekeeping in her vision] said, ‘she jumped from up there.'”
Sobbing uncontrollably, Kelly continued: “Then, I remember my baby’s voice in the back going, ‘Mama, mama…why did mama jump? Why did mama leave us?'”
It was at that moment Kelly realized she had to do something, so she got down off the hotel balcony and pleaded with God for answer, saying, “God, you have to give me an answer today, not tomorrow, not in an hour. I need it now.”
“What do you want me to do, if this is not for me,” Kelly asked.
Kelly said God told her to “grab your laptop.” Though she questioned the command, thinking that she was “not the teeth missing, broken bone girl,” Kelly finally obliged. On her laptop, she said that God told her to type in “domestic violence.” It led her to the aforementioned questionnaire.
“I kept scrolling, and at the end of the domestic violence awareness website, there was a questionnaire,” she shared, with tears drenching her face. “There were 17 questions and they ask you, ‘Has your abuser ever done…?’ And of the 17, Robert [R. Kelly] had done 15 to me.”
You can watch Kelly’s heart wrenching revelation in the clip below:
As to why she’s waited nearly 10 years to speak out about the abuse, Kelly said that she had to take care of herself, mentally, first.
“I was not strong enough,” Kelly revealed. “How can I be a voice for the voiceless when I don’t even have my own? So, I had to wait until God said, ‘Okay, daughter. It’s time.'”
The former couple has three children together.