When singer and celebrity chef Kelis finalized her divorce from rapper Nas in 2010, she said only that “irreconcilable details” drove the superstar couple apart. But in a wide-ranging interview with Hollywood Unlocked released Thursday, Kelis claimed that their five-year marriage was riddled with “mental and physical abuse,” alleging that Nas would frequently black out from drinking and then get violent.“Did he hit me? Mhmm. Did I hit him back? Mhmm,” Kelis said.
“But was it mutual combat, or was it you hitting him back because he hit you?” interviewer Jason Lee asked.“It was because he would black out. He would drink too much,” Kelis said, adding later that she never started the fights. “So a lot of the stuff, he may not remember. There have been times when literally we would have the worst night ever… And we would wake up the next day and it’s like it never happened.”When photos of Rihanna emerged after Chris Brown physically assaulted her in 2009, while Kelis was still married to Nas, the “Milkshake” singer said she wondered about coming forward about her own abuse.Read: Bill Cosby threw a courtroom tantrum when a jury found him guilty“I remember so clearly when the pictures came out with that whole thing that happened with her and Chris Brown, and the only way I can describe it was like double-dutch. Like I felt like, ‘Do I jump in? Do I say it?’ Because I had bruises all over my body at that time,” Kelis explained. “Seeing her, the way she looked, and then looking at myself, I was embarrassed. I was appalled.”But Kelis stayed, she said, because she wasn’t ready to end the marriage or, potentially, her career.“I didn’t want that to be my career, honestly,” she explained. “I didn’t say anything because I wanted things to work and because I was delusional and because I thought, ‘I could love past this. Like, we can get through this.’”A representative for Nas didn’t immediately respond to a VICE News request for comment. The rapper has so far refrained from commenting publicly on Kelis’s allegations.Kelis, now 38, ultimately filed for divorce from Nas in 2009, three months before she gave birth to their son, Knight. The two have since been in and out of court over care for Knight, which Kelis said helped spur her decision to speak publicly about their marriage.“The list of things that I have had to endure that I have not said — I hit a wall,” she said. “It was this morning. This morning I was like, ‘I am done. I have no more patience to give.’”Cover image: Singer Kelis attends Spotify's inaugural Secret Genius Awards at Vibiana Cathedral on November 1, 2017 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
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