Readers note: This post may be triggering to those who have experienced sexual abuse and/or sexual assault.
After the premiere of Lifetime’s gripping Surviving R. Kelly docuseries, conversations about sexual abuse and molestation have emerged, as it was revealed the Grammy-award winning singer was the victim of molestation by a family member.
Carey Kelly, Robert’s younger brother, was also featured in the dream hampton-directed doc and revealed he too was molested as a child. Carey, who is four years younger than Robert, admitted he tried to confide in his older brother but was dismissed, and so he kept the molestation a secret.
In December 2018, Carey spoke with radio personality Tasha K and gave a detailed account of his childhood molestation at the hands of his late sister, Theresa.
“My mom had to work and she was going to school, you know, to take care of us, so my sister watched us and my mama trusted her,” Kelly revealed. “I was pretty much afraid to tell my mama. I didn’t know if she was going to believe me, I didn’t know how everything would change by speaking up, so I was afraid.”
Carey is the youngest of four siblings, with Theresa being the oldest, Bruce being the second oldest and then Robert. Carey said he understood why his late sister had to babysit, calling the situation a “Catch 22.”
Looking back on his childhood, Carey said it took him a while to pick up on his sister’s tactics. “I really didn’t notice right away when Robert was being held in the house. I can’t remember when that took place but it had to be before I turned seven. I noticed he was in the house and I get to go outside now.”
Bruce and Theresa are around the same age and Carey said he doesn’t think Theresa ever molested Bruce because “he always got to go outside.”
The first time his older sister tried to molest Carey, he explained his reaction scared her off.
“When I came in the room, she was in a robe and she opened up her robe. She didn’t have anything on up under the robe and she told me to come over to her. As a kid in my mind, I’m confused because I know this is my sister. I’m six. I know this [is] wrong, and she’s way older than me,” Carey recalled. “At first, I thought she was playing, but she was insistent on me coming over to her and I was hesitant and she grabbed my arm. She took my hand and started rubbing it on her private part and I started crying. I guess that kind of scared her. Then she told me to go back to the living room. That was the first time she attempted to test the waters, so to speak. “
A week later, Carey said Theresa was more “aggressive.”
“Robert and Bruce were allowed to go outside and she told me to sit in the living room…it was something she said that I did. She asked me a question and I don’t think I answered it correctly, or how she wanted me to answer it…So this time around, she was more aggressive to the point,” Carey described.
“She took my face, and I’m short and she brought me into the room from the living room and she had the robe on again and she sat on the bed and she grabbed my head and put it down by her private part. She told me to lick her private parts. Of course, I didn’t know what I was doing at six years old she was like ‘stick your tongue out! stick your tongue out! lick it! lick it! lick it fast’ She was giving me instructions. I just started crying and then she went down and she started giving me oral sex, even as a kid I know this was wrong. I’m not condoning this.”
The molestation went on for six years and his mother, Joanne, who has since died, did not know. “I never found the courage to tell her. I never found the strength to tell her what was happening to me,” Carey revealed.