R. Kelly’s Ex-Wife Speaks Out: “What He Did To Me Was Criminal”

For the first time in over a decade, R. Kelly’s ex-wife Andrea Kelly is speaking out about the abuse she endured during their marriage.

She sat for a live interview with Sister Circle, where she discussed the day she realized that she was a victim of abuse. Andrea and Robert were staying at a hotel, and she had been in bed, “playing sick” that day. She asked herself what she was going to do, when “something said, ‘End it.’ That was my first answer. End it,” she said, revealing that the abuse led to her experience suicidal impulses.

Andrea opened her laptop and searched for “domestic violence”; she took an online questionnaire to determine if abuse was taking place. She says that of the 15 signs of abuse, Robert had inflicted 13 of them on her. Robert did not respond to Sister Circle’s request for comment, and has previously denied all accusations of sexual misconduct and abuse by his wife.

Andrea directly faced the camera and said, “Robert, you don’t get to tell my story. That is my truth.” She also fought back against his narrative of their divorce. “You don’t get to tell people that we got divorced because I had a problem with being a stay-at-home mom,” she said. “We got divorced because I was no longer going to sit and be violated. What he did to me was criminal.” She also forcefully disavowed Robert’s version of their marriage in his 2012 autobiography, Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me.

Additionally, Andrea spoke with the parents of Jocelyn Savage, who is being held in Robert’s alleged “sex cult.” “I do know that she is loved and she will come out of this because you laid that foundation for her,” she said, as she held their hands. In a statement to People, Robert’s team has said that he “unequivocally denies such allegations” of sexual abuse.

Savage’s parents have been attempting to make contact with their daughter, as they believe she is brainwashed into willingly staying in his inner sex circle. This is in addition to the pending lawsuit regarding another victim who alleges being infected. Journalist Jim DeRogatis exposed the sex cult story last year for BuzzFeed.

Andrea was Robert’s second wife (after he illegally married singer Aaliyah when she was 15); they were married in 1996 and divorced in 2009. They have three children.

You can watch videos of the interviews below. Please note that they contain explicit discussion of suicidal thoughts and domestic abuse.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or TTY 1-800-787-3224 for confidential support.