R Kelly’s Ex-Wife Confirms He Can’t Read But Didn’t Want His Kids to Know: Celebrities: Enstarz

R. Kelly’s ex-wife Andrea “Drea” Kelly has revealed that the disgraced R&B singer’s inability to read embarrassed him and caused tension between them when they got married.

During an appearance on “The Culture Club Uncensored” podcast, the 50-year-old choreographer and dancer addressed the convicted sex offender’s recent claims that he cannot read or understand words other than those of a “primary school student.”

Drea confirmed that Kelly, who was in his late 20s to early 30s when he married his ex-wife, couldn’t even read a children’s book.

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She said Kelly told her he was abused as a child by a man and a woman, and she believes that may have led to his literacy problems.

Drea recalled an incident during their wedding when Kelly worried that their children would find out that their father could not read.

She said she read a book by Dr. She was going through Seuss that she was going to read to their children when Kelly apparently panicked and left the room.

“He turned into a little boy right before my eyes, and I thought, ‘What’s going on? It’s just… we’re just reading stories to the kids. What’s going on?'” explained them out.

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According to Drea, Kelly confessed to her at the time that he didn’t want their children to find out he couldn’t read.

“He said, ‘Drea, I don’t want to do that in front of them,’ and I said, ‘But why?'” she recalled their conversation. “He said, ‘I can’t read to them what’s in that book. I don’t want my kids to know I can’t read.'”

Drea, who was married to Kelly from 1996 to 2009, said she then started teaching her then-husband to read using children’s books.

“I said, ‘But Robert, what you have to understand is that they can’t read either. You’re magical here. Make up the story as you go. I’ll help you figure it out,’ and literally, I taught him the books of Dr .Reading seriously,” she recalled.

However, Drea said her attempts to teach Kelly to read later caused some resentment from the singer.

She claimed that during arguments he would ‘use’ the fact that she could read while he could not against her, creating a ‘love-hate relationship’ between them.

In 2019, Kelly scored a reconsideration in a civil lawsuit against him for sexual abuse after his lawyers claimed he was illiterate and could not read court documents.

In a lawsuit cited by the Chicago Sun-Times, Kelly’s lawyers said the singer “suffers from a learning disability that negatively affects his ability to read.”

Kelly repeated this claim earlier this year in court documents denying all liability in a separate lawsuit filed against him, The Blast reported.

The singer — who is currently in jail — claimed he had no memory of receiving the lawsuit filed by women who accused him and Donnell Russell of trying to schedule a screening of the docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.” 2018 to stop a mass shooting. threat.

Kelly also claimed that he only learned through a friend that a judge had awarded the women $10.5 million.

But the musician claimed he would not have been able to understand the legal documents even if he had received them.

“I rely on my lawyers to explain things to me because I cannot read or understand words beyond those of an elementary school student,” Kelly claimed.

The musician was convicted in 2021 of racketeering and sex trafficking from New York.

Last year he was also convicted of child pornography and enticing minors to have sex.

Kelly was sentenced to a total of 50 years in prison for these convictions.