Kelly says she doesn’t care about opinions of people struggling with their own lives

Within the first 30 seconds of watching the trailer for ShowMax’s upcoming reality show, Life With Kelly, you find yourself taken aback by just how candidly musician Kelly Khumalo approaches some of the more sensitive topics of her life. 

From seeing Kelly’s mother telling her that a child “needs to know where his father is, it doesn’t matter how much of a criminal the father is,” to seeing Kelly’s five-year-old daughter Thingo saying “we don’t have a dad”, while in a different conversation with her mother, one can only wonder just how real Life With Kelly will get when it airs on the streaming platform next month. 

Although her professional music career began back in 2003 at the tender age of 19, the public was formally introduced to the star two years later when she released her debut album, TKO, following the success of her smash hit Qinisela. 

From then on, the star found herself in the headlines for some or other controversial reason. An accidental upskirt, a drug-addled existence in an abusive relationship with Uyajola99 presenter Jub Jub, an affair with a married man and the unsolved murder of a partner who just so happened to be one of South African soccer’s most beloved figures, Senzo Meyiwa, are just some of the reasons her name has made headlines. 

These are also some of the reasons Kelly finds herself as the subject of an unending onslaught of cyberbullying. 

Many have expressed their concerns about the effect that the constant verbal abuse may be having on the star but surprisingly, Kelly could care less. 

“I could care less about the opinions of people who are struggling with their own lives as well,” she said in a recent interview with The Citizen. 

“I’ve always been a person who is comfortable with her reality, it’s not for the reality show, that’s who I am,” she added. 

It, therefore, took little to no convincing when the founder of production house Bar Leader, Legend Manqele, pitched the idea of documenting her life for a reality show. 

“Kelly is one of our most talented musicians, but the stories I kept hearing about her didn’t add up to me. My first approach was to do a music video for Kelly and work on re-branding her. However, when I sat down with her, I realised that she is a microcosm of the black single mother in this country,” said Manqele. 

“I then decided that I wanted to use the power of reality TV to tell her story as authentically as possible.”

Considering the fact that Bar Leader is the company behind smash-hit reality shows such as Being Bonang, Somizi & Mohale: The Union, and Kwa Mam’Mkhize – Legend and his team had exactly the kind of expertise needed for this task. 

“Viewers can expect a very different side from this seemingly one-sided story about Kelly. They can expect a story of a woman who is still in the process of healing, a woman who is still in the process of making sense of all that has unravelled in the public eye,” concluded Manqele. 

“I think I’m at the place where, like I said, I’m very comfortable with my life. I could care less what people think about my life. It is only when we fear people’s perception of what our lives are when we fear just living our truth,” added Kelly. 

The concept of living of her truth is something the star holds so near and dear to her heart that she says it is a lesson she will pass on to her children, 10-year-old Christian and Thingo, who will also appear on the show. 

WATCH: Crying Kelly Khumalo’s message to the world shakes up social media

Despite knowing that their lives are somewhat public, Kelly says she has had to really think about the information she shares with her children and how she shares it with them given their ages. 

“They have accepted the fact that there is something very different about their lives and most of their life is public.” 

Over and above giving viewers a look at her life as a single mother, Life With Kelly will also follow the star in the lead-up to the release of her new album, Undithatha Kancinci which she will be working on while juggling the release of her first gin, appropriately titled ‘Controversy.’ 

All this against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the country’s lockdown which pose challenges to Kelly in her capacity as an entertainer and an entrepreneur in the alcoholic beverages space. 

The first six episodes of Life With Kelly Khumalo will be available to binge first and only on Showmax from Thursday, 6 August 2020, with the final seven episodes dropping 27 August 2020. 

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