Drea Kelly, the ex-wife of disgraced Chicago singer R. Kelly, is keeping his last name and does not care what anybody has to say about it.
During a recent sitdown with Carlos King for his “Reality With the King” podcast, she responded to the criticism of her keeping Kelly’s last name, especially considering the fact that he is currently serving a 30-year sentence in a federal facility on a sex trafficking conviction and a 20-year sentence after being convicted of child pornography and enticement charges, which runs concurrently.
“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?” Drea told King.
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.”
Drea has three children with the “I Believe I Can Fly” crooner: 22-year-old Robert Jr., Jaah, 24 and 26-year-old Joann. She was married to R. Kelly R. from 1996 to 2009.
“It’s my kid’s 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? You tell your kids, ‘Oh, you’re a Brown by yourself; I’m out.’ No. If my kids have to go through it as Kelly, they mama going through it as Kelly,” she declared.
The dancer and choreographer alleges she was the victim of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of her ex-husband throughout the course of their marriage. Now, in her spare time, Drea advocates for victims of domestic violence.
In the U.S., about 1 in 3 women experience Intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime, while approximately 40% of Black women experience such violence in their lifetimes compared to 30.2% of white women. Black women are also three times more likely to die as a result of IPV than their white counterparts.
Drea believes that nobody would care about her experiences had she not held onto Kelly’s last name.
“Here’s the real gag, boo. If my name wasn’t Kelly, you wouldn’t even care… ‘Case Ms. Jones is going through the same thing I’m going through right now. Ms. White is going through it. Ms. Anderson is going through it, but y’all don’t care about it; y’all not on her page commenting; you’re not trying to be an advocate; you’re being nosey. You know why? Because my last name is Kelly.”
Watch the full interview with Carlos King above.
