R. Kelly’s Ex-Wife and Daughter Speak Out About the Allegations Against Him | Good Morning Britain

for the rest of the world this is a very difficult unpleasant scandal no other way to put it for you - this must be pretty unbearable you know you are so closely aligned as a family to our Kelly how are you dealing with all this fury that's been erupting particularly since the release of this film we're dealing with it as best as possible you know I don't think that people have a clear understanding that that we're dealing with two people here there's our Kelly the persona and then there's Robert the person myself and my daughter we're connected to Robert the person so it is very personal him being my ex-husband and the father of my children so it's difficult but I think that it is needed it's saving lives it's changing lives and we stand in the gap TRAI how would you describe as someone who was married to him for what for 13 years was it how would you describe a person well in the beginning Robert the person he was funny he had the best mama jokes ever we started out as friends and it evolved into a relationship he was very broken he shared intimate secrets with me about being abused as a child dealing with illiteracy domestic violence was commonplace in his home and the thing that drew us was the fact that my grandfather who was a Baptist preacher was the first time I ever saw a man put his hands on a woman he was abusive to my grandmother so fast forward Robert and I are in an abusive relationship it's not foreign to me it's what I know it's what I grew up in it's what he grew up in so being able to see the person Robert the broken part of him and then there's this persona who portrays this confident in control man which is took total opposite of what he is how do you feel though about the sheer magnitude of allegations particularly involving very young girls in some cases which have now been deviled him I know he's not being convicted of any criminal offense as yet although it would appear that that may be coming sooner rather than later in terms of at least criminal charges but how do you you know you've portray him in a very sympathetic light they're almost willingness to feel sorry for him in a way for the yeah he seems to have perpetrated I mean there's so many allegations now he seems to perpetrate it so much misery on to so many young women and young girls how do you feel about that and can you defend any of that well first I'd like to say there's a difference between portraying sympathy which I do not portray I portray understanding because I know him in such a way because I was married to him I'm a firm believer that just because you grew up in a household where abuse was prevalent and you were abused it does not give you a free pass to be an abuser so I want to make that very clear it's devastating and it's hard because I wear two hats I see it here is not only a survivor but also the mother of his children so it's very difficult for me but I also know my position and I know that coming forward brings validity to these young women and young girls stories and being a mother I could not not say anything after ten years of my life going by and thinking I'm painted out of the storm and then here come more allegations and they ring true to my life and me and these women we don't know each other so how could we have the same stories about the same man and not know each other so again my story is coming from that of understanding because I know his background but it also comes from standing as a survivor and an appetite let me just ask you directly do you believe all these women have come forward do you believe that he is a serial abuser of women I believe that he is abusive I can't confirm or deny these women's stories because again I have not lived it personally all I can say is what rings true to my life every experience is different I wasn't there when it happened to some of these women but what I can say what rings true to my life is what I can speak on I don't know the other woman's background so I don't know if they grew up in a household where domestic violence and abuse was commonplace as to why they may have ended up or stayed as long as they did or you know I just can't speak to that I can only speak to my truth and my truth is what I survived he was abusive to me verbally emotionally physically sexually and as we stand today he's financially abusing me he stopped paying child support when I came forward in June of 2018 so you know I can only speak to my story and what rings true to what I hear okay I feel that something has to be done well you're extremely eloquent it must be incredibly difficult for you let me bring in your daughter Joanne Joanne ultimately this is your dad I know you haven't seen him for quite a while but this is your father that we're all talking about in a very unpleasant manner how do you feel about this about your father and and about what's been going on well particularly about the situation and that is happening in the blogs and you know everything all the allegations that are going around it's very hard to digest because as a lot of people know in the post that I posted as far as my reaction to everything that's happening that's still my father it's a very hard situation to digest and even process because my my heart is torn into two separate places as my mother said I don't want to confirm or deny anything that the women have been saying about my father any of the rumors that have been going around throughout the years about my father but as I said I know him he's my father I I grew up in that house to a certain extent so I spent years in that house and so it's very painful to see that all of these people are now being affected and have been affected by somebody who I do care about and have a very strenuous relationship with and it's so close to me so it's it's been Joanne you say that I mean do you still love for your dad do you feel like you have to defend him do you I know that you were reported him a monster bit which you deny are you conflicted about your feelings about him as a young woman I think you're 21 years old now number of these allegations cancer concern young teenage women you would have grown up through those years hearing those allegations what do you think of your dad right now right now I mean like I said I'm very torn because at the end of the day it's still family he's still my blood so yes I do still love my father and that is something that I want people understand I never came out and said what I said to make people feel like I hate him or I'm bashing him because that's not it but you have to at the end of the day be responsible for your actions and I had to do what was best for me and my family had to do what was best for them and if my father is a toxic person then unfortunately we just have to love him from a distance there's no love lost but I just had to separate myself does he try and contact you no when did you last see him now I see it's been a few years since I've seen or spoken to him I don't know exactly how long but it's been a while well listen we really appreciate you both joining us this must be agony to talk about and it's your family you know it's your ex-husband it's your father it's very very difficult territory this obviously I think you've spoken with great eloquence and grace today and we greatly appreciate you taking the trouble to do that and let's just hope that in the end I guess that justice is seen to be done wherever justice lies with this because there are so many allegations to fill my watch today it's so devastating you know it's hard to believe that all these women are making it up frankly but we you know I believe in due process I believe that you process has applied to everyone including our Kelly and let's just wait and see what happens and see where justice takes us but thank you both very much indeed for joining us thank you for having us thank you we contacted our Kelly's lawyer who told us that mr. Kelly loves all of his children and would love to see them the lawyer said that allegations were fully investigated and determined to be unfounded this is the statement by the way by Child Services and the police and rejected by the judge during their divorce and are without merit which is fine but of course there are now myriad further allegations from myriad other women so at some point you add it all up and you don't come up with the world coincidence so yes we'll read their statement but I think our viewers can make their own lines up compelling testimony we've just heard but thank you both you

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 2,732,837

Rating: 3.994745 out of 5

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, r. kelly, r kelly, surviving r kelly, surviving r. kelly, ex wife of r kelly, r kellys ex wife, drea kelly, drea kelly interview, joann kelly, joann kelly r kelly daughter, joann kelly r kelly

Id: Yri0NvArUVI

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 21 2019