R. Kelly’s former wife has had her say on the disgraced singer’s victims. Drea Kelly shared her take on the fallout surrounding the horrifying stories that emerged about R. Kelly more than a decade after splitting up with him.
And what she said was a reflection of a great problem in society, exposing a dark and upsetting truth about our culture. The Guardian reported that a culture around victim-shaming was the reason that so many women took so long to come forward with the truth about what they experienced at the hands of R. Kelly.
Drea Kelly Spoke Out In Support of R. Kelly’s Victims
After he was found guilty on all nine counts put against him in 2021, Drea’s words helped explain that there’s so much more work that needs done to help others in similar situations. She described her ex’s conviction as “a step forward.” However, she stressed that the most important thing was what would happen next.
Drea said that it was important that “women are supported to even feel like they have the strength to come forward and tell their stories” during an interview in the UK. She continued, “If they’re still victim shaming, victim blaming, and women being afraid to speak their truth, we can never get to a court system where justice can be served.”
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Drea has three children with R. Kelly, who she was married to from 1996 to 2009. She has also talked about the horrible abuse she herself suffered at the singer’s hand. Drea described her marriage as “a life of constant fear.”
In her interview, she also stated her belief that racism was partly to blame for the long struggle for R. Kelly’s abuse to reach the public. She explained, “I’ve always said if any of his victims were blonde and blue-eyed it wouldn’t have taken this long.”
Disturbing Allegations About R. Kelly Continue to Emerge
She added that “women of color tend to be lowest on the totem pole” when it comes to subjects of abuse. Since Drea shared her story, R. Kelly has been spending all his time behind bars. However, he has continued to make headlines.
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Last year reports emerged of a woman who claimed to be the singer’s partner and stated that she was carrying his child. The woman, named Joycelyn Savage, presented courts with documents proving that she was actually R. Kelly’s fiancée.
And in August of 2022, a memoir was released that appeared to be written by Joycelyn. It was titled “Love and Joy with Robert” and was advertised as a confession about their relationship.
In it, Joycelyn apparently claimed that she’d received an engagement ring from R. Kelly the day after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. And this short book contained the first shocking claim of Joycelyn’s pregnancy by R. Kelly, which was apparently something that the couple had been trying for for a while.
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Since then all kinds of crazy stories have come out, including disturbing claims from Joycelyn’s dad Timothy that the claims were a scam, and that Joycelyn’s whereabouts were unknown. While he is no longer able to harm anyone, it seems that the damage R. Kelly has already done continues to be felt by countless victims.
