A couple of years ago, Ashanti opened up about the harrowing details surrounding her sister Kenashia Douglas. People magazine first shared a clip from Ashanti’s appearance on Red Table Talk which also featured Kenashia and their mom, Tina. The conversation took a dark turn when they started discussing the “gut-wrenching” situation of Kenashia’s toxic relationship.
Ashanti talked about feeling helpless when she found out what was going on in her sister’s private life. She said, “It had been something that was going on and you don’t know how to deal with it.”
Ashanti opened up about how difficult she found it to not get involved, explaining that they had to respect Kenashia’s decisions. Although she wanted to respect her sister’s choices, Ashanti couldn’t help but feel like she should be doing more to protect Kenashia.
She said that she was the big sister. She told Kenashia that she didn’t like her partner and didn’t think they should be together.
Apparently, Ashanti used to tell Kenashia to leave the relationship “all the time.” She described both Kenashia and her partner as “toxic.” She would tell them that being together for them was like “drinking bleach.”
However, she also suggested that she understood why Kenashia didn’t want Ashanti to get too involved in her business. She said that since Kenashia grew up as Ashanti’s little sister, she wanted her own stuff. This was why she put up with certain things.
Ashanti is 9 years older than her younger sister. She found it hard to figure out what her role was in this situation.
She said, “And it was just like, how do you deal with this? What do we do now? No one gets a book on how to handle this.”
Ashanti Paid Tribute to Her Sister
One month before the interview, Ashani paid tribute to her sister on social media in light of DV awareness month. She wrote a lengthy post, in which she went into detail about how important it is to speak up. She also expressed her enormous pride in her sister for getting out of such a horrible situation.
Alongside her post, Ashanti shared grisly and upsetting pictures of Kenashia covered in blood and bruises. In her post, she wrote that words would never be able to express how much pain and disgust she felt reliving those moments.
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However, she continued, addressing Kenashia directly and saying that she was proud of just how resilient, strong, and unbreakable she was. She described her sister as a “warrior,” and said that she loved her deeply and infinitely. Ashanti thanked Kenashia for her bravery and for “bringing awareness to this evil, vile, and sad behavior that so many women face every day.”
While Ashanti recognized that many women were made to feel so scared that they had no way out, she celebrated the fact that Kenashia had “won” by escaping her situation. She also praised Kenashia for helping others in similar situations by being open and honest about her experiences. Ashanti wrote, “By sharing your story you bring hope, strength & continue to raise awareness.”
She concluded her long, emotional post by telling Kenashia that she would “get back” everything she deserved. Kenashia chose not to share the identity of the partner who had attacked her when she opened up about her toxic relationship.
Kenashia’s Relationship Wasn’t Initially Violent
According to People Magazine, Kenashia had also previously been in a relationship with the rapper Slow Bucks. In fact, the couple were actually engaged for a period of time.
During her appearance on Red Table Talk, Kenashia said that she was in high school when she first met the man who would later attack her. She recalled, “I was about 18 or 19 years old. I hadn’t really had a real relationship.”
She went on to say that, to begin with, the relationship was “pretty fun.” Kenashia described the man as “extremely attentive.” He would apparently compliment her all the time.
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He gave her the attention that she felt she both wanted and needed. This was, according to Kenashia, connected to the negative effect her sister’s singing career had on her. She longed for more attention from their mom, Tina, who was busy trying to help Ashanti’s career after the release of her first album.
Kenashia said that she developed “coping mechanisms” to deal with her feelings of being unloved and ignored. These coping mechanisms would apparently “show up” in her relationships. This was part of the reason she stayed in the relationship for so long after things became toxic and violent.
According to Hello Beautiful, she was with her partner for 13 years before he became dangerous. She said that there were earlier signs, but she was confused and tricked by his love-bombing behavior.
There were some things that she thought were wrong, but whenever she would try to address them, her partner would tell her that the way she thought was wrong. Kenashia then said that over time, this made her question herself and kept her in doubt.
Kenashia Reflected on Her Experience
The couple eventually took a break, only to return to each other a short time later. It was at this point that Kenasia’s partner became physically harmful. He reportedly became paranoid about her cheating on him during their time apart, leading to violent disputes.
In a traumatic moment for Ashanti, she discovered that her sister was being attacked as they spoke on the phone. She said, “I don’t know about when it started. Ironically, I was on the phone with you. It was gut-wrenching.”
On that occasion, Kenashia’s partner allegedly left marks across her neck, forcing her to pick up a sharp weapon to protect herself.
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On her 31st birthday, Kenashia revealed the truth about her pain in a startling fashion on social media. She shared a video she put together which featured clips from her childhood all the way up to 2022. Halfway through the video, you could see the awful photos of her injuries.
In October 2022, Kenashia found the courage to reflect honestly on her experience. She wrote in a post, “It was dangerous not only for obvious reasons but also because to the outside world, everything seemed fine.”
Kenashia Is Proud of Who She Became
Despite how difficult the process of sharing her story must have been for her, Kenashia stayed true to herself and kept hold of her dignity throughout. She shared that she held “grace and patience for the woman [she] was and everything she didn’t know.”
She even wrote that she was grateful to the person she used to be for taking her on the journey to being who she is now. Kenashia concluded by stating that she was not a “victim” or a “survivor,” and that everything she went through was all part of her story, her journey, and her life.
Despite how difficult things were for Kenashia and her family, thankfully, that horrific chapter of her story is now well behind her. They can all finally relax and try to heal from all the awful things that happened.
This may, however, prove to be a long journey. It’s clear that Kenashia was deeply affected by what happened to her, as were her mother and sister, who hated seeing her in that situation.
