Andrea Kelly says ex-husband R. Kelly abused her throughout their 13-year marriage.
The professional dancer and choreographer, who was married to the R&B singer from 1996 to 2009 and has three children with him, shared the allegations on an episode of The View that aired last Friday, The Guardian reports. She described numerous horrifying incidents, including being “hog tied” by their bed while her husband slept beside her and nearly asphyxiating in the backseat of their Hummer.
“His forearm was on my neck, so, as he’s pressing down, my breathing is getting labored. And the only reason I think I made it out is because I said, Robert, you’re going to kill me. I can’t breathe. You have to get your arm off of my neck,’” Kelly told the hosts of The View. “I just thought , ‘Oh, my god. I’m going to die in the back of this Hummer. He’s going to drive off with my body in the backseat, and nobody’s going to know.”
When The View co-host Abby Huntsman asked her what would “set him off,” Kelly said anything from wearing clothing her ex-husband deemed too revealing to having “too much tone in my voice,” even the milk in his cereal being too cold. Andrea, who separated from R. Kelly in 2005 after filing a restraining order against him, said that he never had these “episodes” before they were married.
In coming forward, Kelly joins more than half a dozen other women who have accused Robert Kelly of abuse. (R. Kelly has denied these allegations, The Guardian notes, and did not respond to The View’s request for comment.) Andrea Kelly said that she came forward in solidarity with these other women, hoping that her story would lend “validity” to everything they’ve claimed.
“It’s about saving lives. You cannot not speak when someone’s life and what they’ve been through is parallel to yours, when you hear words that ring true to your spirit because you’ve survived it and been through it. I wanted to bring validity to these women’s stories. So much of it falls on deaf ears, and no one believes them,” Kelly told The View’s co-hosts. “It’s true. I’ve been through it. The things that these women are saying, they would not know my life unless they’ve been through it, too. I have to speak up.”