Andrea Kelly is fed up with social media users asking her about her last name. The choreographer was married to disgraced singer R. Kelly for 13 years before their divorce was finalized in 2009.
The former couple share three children: Jay, Robert, and Joann Kelly, the latter of whom goes by her stage name Buku Abi.
Despite calling it quits on their intimate relationship well over a decade ago, Drea has yet to forgo the famous surname. To the dismay of plenty, she previously explained that she put in work for the name.
“You don’t turn it in at the end of the marriage. My name is Andrea Daniel Kelly. I earned that name, blood, sweat and tears. And people should not be worried about why I kept the last name, they should be more concerned with what I do with the last name,” she said in a 2022 appearance on “Turnt Out With TS Madison.”
A year later, her stance remains the same, as proven in a recent Instagram Live session where she was bombarded with comments demanding she drops the name, Kelly. Her responses included clapping back at people with, ‘Cause I don’t want to…and it’s my kid’s name. Get out of here” and “You get off Instagram, how ‘bout that?”
Andrea’s refusal to restore her maiden name sparked a heated discourse where people commented:
“It’s literally her children’s last name. Tina Turner kept Ike’s name, she was traumatized too!”
“She’s making money off the last name. Most women don’t change their last name. Nicole Murphy still carries Murphy as her last name .. it’s about business.”
“Girl shut up… your too old for this. You did all that to out that man just to keep his last name. Goodnight.”
“I would’ve changed my last name AND my kids last name back to my maiden last name so fast after he was sentenced to jail Ain’t no way!!”
Andrea shared a clip from the live chat, which she captioned, “I’m about to be half of 100, don’t get on my live playing with me baby!!”
During their marriage, the “12 Play” singer faced allegations of having sexual relationships with underage girls and making a sex tape with a teen girl.
Heinous claims about his indecent dealings with young women and men were renewed around 2019, when a slew of alleged victims came forward after the widely watched multipart documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”
In 2021, he was convicted in a racketeering-child sex exploitation case. In September 2023, he was convicted in a similar case in Chicago. His combined prison sentence is more than 30 years.
