R. Kelly’s ex-wife says abuse made her contemplate suicide
The ex-wife of alleged sex abuser R. Kelly is coming out of the shadows to talk in detail about her violent and troubled marriage to the singer.
R. Kelly‘s ex-wife Andrea told the ladies of ABC’s “The View” a harrowing tale about a union that included abuse so violent that in one episode, she thought sure she was about to die. The professional dancer detailed one instance that involved Kelly pressing his forearm into her neck, leaving her unable to breathe. In another episode, she said, R. Kelly hogtied her and left her on the floor next to the bed.
Andrea Kelly was married to the 51-year-old accused singer from 1996 to 2009. She told “The View” that she decided to speak out when she heard a television interview with another of R. Kelly’s alleged abusers, and the young woman’s story sounded strikingly similar to her own.
“I wanted to bring validity to these women’s stories,” Andrea Kelly, 44, said on the show that aired Thursday. “So much of it falls on deaf ears and no one believes them … I was like, ‘If no one else is going to speak up for her, if no one else is going to believe her, at least she knows that I do.’ ”
Kelly said that in the incident in which she found herself struggling to breathe took place in the back of the couple’s Hummer. R. Kelly pulled her forearm behind her back and pushed his forearm into the back of her neck, restricting her breathing more and more. She tried to tell him that she was in trouble, she told “The View.”
“I said, ‘Robert, you’re going to kill me – I can’t breathe,’ “ she recounted. “I just thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die in the back of this Hummer.’ “
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Andrea Kelly said the battering was mental and physical and pushed her to the brink of suicide.
“I went out on the balcony and I climbed up,” she said. “I looked down and God allowed me to see myself laying in blood.”
She added, “That was my darkest moment … The fact that I was willing to leave (my children) let me know the best thing you have to do for you and your children to live is leave.”
Andrea and R. Kelly had three children together, and Andrea Kelly says he does not pay child support.
Andrea Kelly filed a restraining order against the singer in 2009. The singer has been accused of forcing women into a sex cult in which they travel with him and do his bidding. He has denied the allegations. Last month, the singer’s brother, Carey Kelly, claimed R. Kelly sexually abused a teen cousin.
