In a world where the glorification of celebrity relationships (past and present) is rampant, there always comes a moment when we get a sobering welcome back to reality. Kelis recently sat down with The Hollywood Unlocked to open up about her past relationship Nas, and says that she ended it due to its disturbing and "violent" nature. 

"I was really naive, I was madly in love, and so I took a lot that I shouldn’t have taken, and generally just it’s not in my character at all, so it was just all awkward," said Kelis.

Kelis reflected on the time they met to the time they ended things, and everything in between.

"We had really intense highs and really intense lows," she continued. "It was never normal. An intense high would be when money was rolling in. We were young. But I was 22 when I met him. I was a baby. We were drinking too much, smoking too much. We were too much. We were spending too much. We were balling too much. We were living too hard. So when that comes down, it goes really low. There’s no balance, there’s no normalcy."

The couple got married in 2005, cementing their place in hip-hop royalty. After some time, she says she began to realize how "dark" the relationship was becoming. 

"It was really dark. A lot of drinking. A lot of mental and physical abuse and it got to the point where if I wasn’t pregnant, I might have stayed with him. I really did love him. We were married — we weren’t dating, we were married, this was my person," she noted.

Kelis has not previously opened up about any details regarding the marriage that ended in 2010. Kelis says that the end really came in 2009, when news broke that Chris Brown physically assaulted then-girlfriend Rihanna. The singer says a light bulb when off in her head, and that she connected Rihanna's situation to her own.

"Something reminded me of Rihanna. I remember so clearly when the pictures came out when the Rihanna and Chris Brown pictures came out I thought about coming out because I also had bruises all over my body,” Kelis recalled.

Kelis said she decided not to say anything at the time "because I’m private. But seeing her the way she looked and then looking at myself … I felt embarrassed."

Now things are a little different. “I’ve waited 9 years to say anything,” she said. “I have never talked about this man. The amount of airing out that I could do and don’t do is what our kids will find out.”

You can view the full Kelis interview below:


Chris-browndomestic abuseKelisNASRihanna