Nationwide — Author and life coach Iyanla Vanzant is apologizing to R. Kelly, saying the Black community failed the disgraced singer by not stepping in when he needed guidance. During a recent interview, she said community elders and people close to him should have recognized his struggles and offered support before his criminal actions led to decades in prison for sexually abusing women and children.
During an appearance on The Jason Lee Show, Vanzant addressed Kelly directly and expressed regret for what she described as the community’s failure to support him. According to Complex, she said elders had a responsibility to recognize his difficulties instead of ignoring them. “Forgive me as an elder in our community not being available to support you,” she said. “Forgive me for ignoring your pain. Forgive me for abandoning you.”
When host Jason Lee asked whether she believed she had personally abandoned Kelly, she said the responsibility extended beyond her. She blamed the broader Black community, including people who had the influence and opportunity to intervene but failed to do so. “Our entire community abandoned him. As an elder, I’m going to own it,” she said. “We did. We abandoned him.”
She also brought up Michael Jackson, arguing that people around both entertainers failed to address troubling behavior. Vanzant questioned why those who benefited financially from Kelly’s career did not make an effort to help him with his personal challenges. She specifically pointed to his reading difficulties and the lack of support he received from people around him. “The man couldn’t even read,” she said. “How many people made how much money on him and nobody had enough compassion for their brother to sit him down two, three times a week to teach him how to read?” She then questioned how his circumstances might have affected his development, asking why people were surprised by what she described as his troubled heart and soul.
Her remarks come despite the serious criminal convictions that resulted in Kelly’s lengthy prison sentence. In September 2021, a federal jury in Brooklyn found him guilty of nine counts, including racketeering and violations of the Mann Act. Prosecutors showed how he used employees and associates to recruit women and underage girls, control them, and facilitate their sexual exploitation. A judge sentenced him to 30 years in federal prison in June 2022.
He later faced another federal trial in Chicago, where a jury convicted him of producing child sexual abuse material and enticing minors. In February 2023, he received an additional 20-year sentence, with all but one year running concurrently with his New York sentence. The two sentences give him a combined prison term of 31 years. The convictions followed years of allegations surrounding his conduct, even as his music career continued.