Kelly Price Exclusive: R&B Diva Talks Overcoming Mean Girl Image, Molestation and Being Too Fat for Fame
Kelly Price may have been the center of conflict on the hit reality television series "R&B Divas: L.A.," but the Grammy nominated singer-songwriter has opened up to The Christian Post about overcoming her negative portrayal on the show, a troubled past filled with abuse and being too fat for fame.
Price, 40, may have been perceived as the villain in the TV One reality television series after she refused to cooperate with the direction other cast members wanted to take on a music monologue showcase, but the singer insists that viewers were not given an accurate account of what actually took place.
While fans witnessed dissension among Price and her fellow R&B singers Chanté Moore, Claudette Ortiz, Lil' Mo, Dawn Robinson and Michel'le Toussaint, she insisted that things were not what they seemed.
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"I think the biggest misconception is that I was combative with the ladies. That didn't happen," Price revealed to The Christian Post. "I've been disrespected. I've been cursed at by some of the production people on the set.. a lot of things that happened that the public will never know about that I have well documented if I need to produce otherwise."
Price said some of her negative behavior broadcast on the show this season was taken out of context and really a reaction to some of the negative things that the production crew was saying and asking her to do to her fellow cast members behind the scenes.
"What they did was, they showed my reaction to those things but never showed the things that were said or done to me," Price insisted. "I think people walked away with what they saw but if people had seen some things that garnered the reactions they would understand better."
While some fans have taken to Twitter to speak out about Price who has been labeled a bully, mean girl and villain in several media outlets, the Christian singer said she has faith that the negative stigma about her will dissolve with time.
"This is something that I 100 percent believe that I will overcome, because as a Christian woman what I do know is that a lie can't carry," Price told CP. "..Anything that is not true will die down eventually and the truth will come to light."
Still, it seems unlikely that Price will participate in a second season of "R&B Divas: L.A."
"I personally am not interested in doing things where I set up ambush meetings with some of my fellow cast members with their ex spouses. I'm not interested in being asked to wear clothes that are too small for me so that they can make the fat girl the butt of the joke," Price told CP. "So take from that what you will without me officially saying whether or not I intend to return to the show. But with that I am not interested in doing things that I was asked to do."
However, Price said she did not regret taking part in the show, which she believes has prepared her to executive produce her own reality television series, "Too Fat For Fame."
"I learned throughout my life (that) there are no wasted experiences and I could have never known a year ago that I would be blessed with the brain child of 'Too Fat For Fame,'" she told CP. "As much as I don't like the things that have happened with the show, I had an opportunity to learn the right way to make reality t.v. and the wrong way to make reality t.v. and I could have never really learned that if I wasn't sitting in the middle of it to see it happening."
"Too Fat For Fame" is an amateur talent competition that Price created for plus-sized men and women, whose weight may have hindered them from otherwise breaking into the entertainment industry as dancers, singers, actors, comedians and television personalities. Although the singer has been nominated for several Grammy awards and worked with household names like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and R.Kelly, she insists that she has been discriminated against due to her weight throughout her career.
"Honestly people think that maybe because I have success that I don't deal with that anymore. But I still deal with that on a regular basis in entertainment," Price revealed. "A lot of times you'll have somebody who could be the most talented person in the world, but because they are plus sized they're not even considered for a call back. To me it's a great opportunity to really expose some incredible talent who otherwise haven't had a fair shot of being discovered."
While Price plans to bring the competition to television, people can follow its progression on toofatforfame.com where they can view some of the talent that has already made it past the audition cycle in the competition. The singer believes that God's grace has provided her with the ability to overcome insurmountable odds so that she could help others do the same.
Price is no stranger to overcoming the hardships in life and has prevailed in the face of more than just discrimination because of her appearance, but also homelessness and abuse. She revealed that the latter took place when she was molested as a three-year-old girl by a trusted family member.
Still, the singer insists that she has come to terms with the childhood abuse that she was forced to endure after realizing that she could help people who identified with her story.
"There are a couple of lessons that I've learned and it took me almost my whole life to understand that although I was a child and I didn't deserve being raped at three years old, somewhere in there God knew that he put enough in me that I could overcome it and use it in my music as a witness tool, a ministry tool (and) a way to help other people who have experienced the same thing," Price reflected to CP. "That's the blessing in it because I'm blessed by knowing that somebody has been helped by it and it helped me to release it as well."
It is this resiliency that allows Price to worry less about the villainous image that she attained during her stint on R&B Divas and focus on releasing two new music projects in the future, one Gospel and the other R&B that she plans to release in the first quarter of 2014.
Although Price is a preacher's kid who spent every day in church as a child, she knows that overcoming some of life's greatest struggles has been the true testament of her faith.
"As you know I'm a black girl out of the projects of New York City, raised in a single parent home because my parents divorced very very young..welfare and homeless at four and then again at 16 and just not having the things or the necessary tools that society would say I needed to have in order to be any kind of success in life," Price revealed to CP. "So on paper, my history says that my future was not very promising. But through grace I have the opportunity to prove that where you start is not where you have to end up."
