Fans will see another side of the Kelly family this summer.
R. Kelly's ex-wife, Andrea "Drea" Kelly, has joined the upcoming season of Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta, ET exclusively confirms. The news comes amid the R&B artist's criminal case, in which he faces 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Kelly was indicted last month on the charges involving four victims, three of whom were underage, in incidents spanning more than a decade. He has denied the accusations.
"I don't know what it's like to be R. Kelly's child. I only know what it's like to be his ex-wife," Drea says in ET's exclusive Growing Up Hip Hop teaser, which promises to focus on "the truth." Also joining the show this season are T-Boz, Waka Flocka and Tammy Rivera.
Kelly and Drea share three children together -- Joann, 21, Jay, 19, and Robert, 17 -- with their child support battle recently making headlines.
The singer was released from Illinois' Cook County Jail on Saturday, March 9th after a $161,663 child support payment was made on his behalf. He was taken into custody three days earlier, after failing to come up with the money he owed to Drea at a court hearing on March 6.
Drea, who was married to Kelly from 1996 to 2009, accused him of abuse in Lifetime's Surviving R. Kelly docuseries (he has denied those allegations). She opened up about finding the strength to come forward in an emotional Instagram post in January.
"Thank God for his grace, guidance, love AND deliverance," she wrote. "I celebrate the woman I am TODAY! Though some want [to] 'expose' the pain filled, scared, abused women I was.....STOP! I AM No longer afraid. No longer willing to silence my PAIN AND SUGARCOAT THE ABUSE I ENDURED because of how my abuser and his LEGAL TEAM were THREATENING to come against me if I 'didn’t choose wisely.'"
Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta returns to WE tv this summer.
RELATED CONTENT:
