R. Kelly’s ex-wife and the mother of his three children, Andrea Kelly, appeared on TV One’s Sister Circle and recounted what she says were her years of abuse at the hands of the R&B singer.
Andrea was married to the singer from 1996 to 2009, and during the show, she spoke about the moment she asked God to give her the strength to make a decision as to what to do about her marriage.
“God, I need an answer today—not tomorrow, not in an hour; I need it now. And the first thing God told me, he said, ‘Grab your laptop,’ and once I grabbed the laptop, he said, ‘Put in domestic violence.’ I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’m not that girl. I’m not the teeth missing, I’m not the broken-bone girl.’ I kept scrolling, and at the end of the domestic-violence-awareness website, there was a questionnaire. There were 17 questions, and they ask you has your abuser ever done ... of the 17, Robert had done 15 to me,” Andrea said.
It’s been 10 years since Andrea was married to the problematic singer, and she said God told her it was time to speak out.
“How can I be a voice for the voiceless when I don’t even have my own? How can I be powerful for the powerless when I don’t even have my own? So I had to wait until God said, ‘OK, daughter, it is time,’” she said.