Kelis says Nas beat her during marriage, opens up about abusive relationship

In an interview with Hollywood Unlocked, rapper Kelis revealed Nas beat her while they were married, and said she stayed with him despite the abuse.

"I'm not frail, I'm not scared, I'm not weak," she said in the interview when discussing her decision to stay with her husband. She and Nas, real name Nasir Jones, were married from 2005 until 2010, when she filed for divorce while seven months pregnant.

Kelis, now 38, said the photos of Rihanna after she was beaten by Chris Brown in 2009 helped her put her own experiences with physical abuse in perspective.

"I also had bruises all over my body at the time… seeing her the way she looked and then looking at myself… I was embarrassed,” she said. "He knew it, I knew it. He looked at me… We were both like, 'Are you gonna do it?'"

She said that at the time, she wasn't ready for "that move" — speaking out about the violence she was experiencing. "So much of that was out of character, in that marriage," she said. "Taking that was out of my character."

She cited Nas's alcohol usage as a contributing factor to the volatile nature of the relationship. "He will never admit it, but he drank too much. A lot of the stuff he may not remember," she said. "There were times when we would literally have the worst night ever and we would wake up the next day, and it's like… it never happened."

She also said she and Nas had, at times, a mutually violent relationship.

"Did he him me? Mhmmm. Did I hit him back? Mhmmm," she said. "I'm a bitch, I know how to fight." But she was also careful to say that when things did get physical, she wasn't the one who initiated.

Nas and Kelis recently made headlines when she refused to let Nas see their 8-year-old son on Easter weekend, because she was celebrating Passover with her child. "Our kids will find out," Kelis said of Nas's behavior. "They're finding out now."

We've reached out to Nas's representation for comment, but have yet to receive a response.

You can watch the entire interview here:

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