13 year old Jay Kelly, musician and producer R Kelly’s youngest child, recently came out as transgender via social media.
Jay Kelly’s mother Drea has reportedly been very supportive of her son, who wrote on Ask.fm “My mom was like, ‘Baby, you know I love you if you were bi, gay, lesbian, you name it and I would still love you so much.’ She was very proud of me, I was like, ‘Thank you mom for accepting the fact that I’m a transgender.’”
R Kelly and Drea Kelly divorced in 2009 after being married for over ten years. R Kelly addressed his son’s gender identity in an interview with Chicago radio station WCGI.
R Kelly was asked to address his “daughter becoming [his] son” and responded with the following remarks:
“You don’t really want to open it up with saying my daughter is becoming my son.”
“Don’t even give the blogs that kind of credit. You know what I’m saying? Real talk.”
“I’ve heard a lot of things about a lot of people, and it was never true.”
“You save money so your kids can go to college—no matter what they are or who they are. They’re still your kids, you gotta support them.”
“You gotta know there’s a back story. There’s a background. That’s why you can’t judge nobody.”
Jay Kelly wrote about his relationship with his father in response to questions from listeners on his Ask.fm account, stating “”It’s not that I don’t like him. He made bad choices, and I don’t want a relationship with him.”
You can watch the interview below.
Sophie Joske
