Surviving R. Kelly ‘Escape Victim’ Finally Speaks Out
Dominique Gardner, a former girlfriend of R. Kelly, has finally broken her silence about her nine year relationship with the Grammy award winning singer. Gardner told The New Yorker she was ready to “give her truth.”
She Hasn’t Seen The Documentary
Viewers watched in shock as Gardner appeared in the last two episodes of documentary series Surviving R. Kelly. Her mother, Michelle Kramer, is seen tracking her down to a Los Angeles hotel room. She pleads with her daughter to leave “Kelly’s cult” and return home.
After being reunited with her mother last May, Gardner ran away three days later to return to her long term lover. The now 27-year-old stayed with him for about two more weeks, until she finally said goodbye to Kelly for good. She is now living on the North Side of Chicago, working and saving money for a studio apartment of her own. However Gardner is still scared R Kelly or his team are watching her. “I wouldn’t put it past him to have his guys following me,” she admitted.
“I would probably still be there if he would have let me go to my little brother’s graduation,” she said. “I’d still be there, but, when he told me no . . . I’m, like, ‘What is wrong with you?’ You don’t let people see their families, I guess, because we might realize how much freedom and happiness we have out there with our families.”
Gardner also told The New Yorker that she has not watched any of the dramatic scenes. “What’s the point of seeing it when I lived it?” she said. “People are using it as entertainment, when it wasn’t entertainment for me, you know?”
She Has Two R Kelly Tattoos
Gardner’s dedication to R Kelly runs deep. After meeting the singer when she was just seventeen, she has two images of Kelly’s face, one on her left leg and another on her rib cage.
“I loved him to death, you know what I’m sayin’? But he needs help. Who doesn’t need help? I am not just about to spread lies about him. It was just the fact that he tried to break me,” she said. “I couldn’t be broken. He wanted that control over me, and I wouldn’t give him that power. So, he figured, like, ‘If I don’t give her food, she’ll come around.’ Nope. I’d rather die than come around and give you my soul.”
“I’m Not A Victim”
Gardner also insisted that the “Ignition” artist “is a giver” but has a short temper. “When everything between me and him was good—oh, my God, it was, like, perfect. But, as soon as he gets mad, he turns into a person like, oh, what up, the new Rob.”
At the end of the day,” Gardner said, “I am not playing victim. I done did some sh*t.” Gardner admits she slept with two other men while she was with Kelly. “Maybe he did hurt. Maybe he was in love with me. But I never gave him a fair chance,” she said.
