R. Kelly’s Ex-Wife Speaks Out For The First Time In 10 Years

R. Kelly’s ex-wife, Andrea Kelly, is publicly talking about her marriage with the R&B singer for the first time in 10 years.
In an interview with TV One’s Sister Circle, Andrea Kelly, 44, recalled the domestic abuse she says she endured at the hands of R. Kelly during their 13-year marriage between 1996 and 2009. She said she finally decided to leave R. Kelly after she contemplated suicide.

“That day, I just remember playing sick all day,” Andrea Kelly told Sister Circle. “I went and got in the bed, and I was just like, ‘OK, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do’ And something just said, ‘End it.’ That was my first answer.”


Through tears, Andrea Kelly described going out onto her hotel balcony and climbing up onto the ledge before she realized suicide was not the answer. She said the thought of her children, who she shares with the R&B singer, reminded her she needed to live.

“I remember looking down, and it’s almost like God was able to let me see the future,” she said. “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 said, ‘She jumped from up there.’ Then, I remember my baby’s voice in the back going, ‘Mama, mama… why did mama jump? Why did mama leave us?’”

“I said ‘OK God, you have to give me an answer today,’” she continued. “‘What do you want me to do if this is not for me, and you want me to leave? What do you want me to do? God I need an answer today. Not tomorrow, not in an hour, I need it now.’”

Andrea Kelly said God directed her to search for domestic violence awareness websites. There she found a questionnaire asking if her partner had done specific abusive things. Out of the 17 questions, she said, R. Kelly had done 15.

R. Kelly’s stardom has been marked by dozens of sexual misconduct allegations dating back to 1994 when he allegedly married R&B singer Aaliyah. The singer was then 15, and he was 27. In 2008, Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges after a video showed him allegedly having sex with and urinating on a 14-year-old girl. He has agreed to multiple out-of-court settlements with women who accused him of sexual assault, including one who said Kelly had sex with her when she was 15.

Kelly’s representatives have dismissed the claims as a “conspiracy.”