DJ for Dallas Hip-Hop & R&B Station 97.9

Kitti Jones

In 2011, with an established career as a well-known DJ for Dallas hip-hop and R&B station 97.9, Kitti Jones met R. Kelly for the first time at an after-party. After a quick exchange, Kelly immediately invited Jones to the next stop on his tour. Kitti eventually became R. Kelly’s girlfriend, leading to a two-year relationship filled with physical, emotional and mental abuse. During their relationship, Kitti quit her job and moved in with Kelly full-time, which further emphasized Kelly’s controlling ways. Through the next 6 months, Kitti experienced the darkest time of her life, and was pushed to the limit with the amount of abuse she was experiencing. On the verge of committing suicide, Jones found the strength to fly back to Dallas, and never return to Chicago.  After many years of silence regarding her personal abuse story, she shared her experience on Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly documentary and is now focused on advocacy against domestic violence and lending her voice to national PSA campaigns such as Stop Violence Against Women for Lifetime and working with RISE, most recently participating in the United Nations Survivors Town Hall.  Kitti first shared her story with Rolling Stone and authored her memoir, I Was Somebody Before This. She was also featured in Jennifer Weiner’s NY Times article, “The Women I’m Thankful For” in 2017.