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The woman who testified during R. Kelly's trial as "Jane Doe" has come forward with her true identity, and her aunt Stephanie "Sparkle" Edwards is speaking out.
Earlier this week, Reshona Landfair revealed she was the underage girl who was sexually assaulted by Kelly on camera and testified about her experience during his trial in Chicago four years ago. Landfair, who was a teenage artist in the R&B group 4 the Cause, laid out over two decades' worth of mental trauma she went through in her new memoir, Who’s Watching Shorty? Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse.
“There’s no job that I can apply for where this isn’t the forefront of my life. There’s no relationship I could be in where this isn’t the forefront of my life,” Landfair told Rolling Stone. “[I felt] like I was losing power. I came to a conclusion one day, and I said, ‘If I just lay all of this out, I no longer have to explain myself. I no longer have to fear the whispers about me at the table, ‘Oh, you know who that is?’ … Once I realized that I didn’t have peace or privacy [by hiding], I had to take ownership.”
Landfair had not seen the infamous videotape until she testified against the singer in 2022. Kelly was convicted of racketeering, sex trafficking, producing child sexual abuse imagery, and coercing minors into sex acts following two separate federal trials in New York and Illinois. He's currently serving 20 and 30-year sentences concurrently at a medium-security facility near Durham, North Carolina. Shortly after debuting her book, Landfair's aunt Stephanie Edwards, professionally known as "Sparkle," shared a statement in which she denied any suggestion of "grooming" and other allegations of her involvement with Kelly's crimes.
“I am relieved that Reshona is finally free to speak her truth and begin her healing journey,” Sparkle wrote. “In addition to justice, I have always wanted healing and peace for her. I do need to be clear about one thing. Any suggestion that I groomed, facilitated, or enabled harm to my niece is untrue and deeply painful, especially given my documented actions at the time and throughout.”
Read Sparkle's entire statement below.