Kelly Rowland Opens Up About Her Rocky Relationship With Estranged Father, And Mends The Bridge With Him

Kelly Rowland is looking to patching things up with her father.

Kelly Rowland was accompanied by her father, Christopher Lovett, for their first-ever public appearance as father and daughter, as they talked about reconnecting after thirty whole years of estrangement. During Tuesday’s episode of The Today Show, the renowned r&b singer and her dad discussed their painful past and emotional reconnection in 2018.

“My understanding of where my dad was as a kid was that he was not really ready as a father,” said Kelly, the guest host of the show, alongside Hoda Kotb, in a pre-recorded interview. The Destiny’s Child star had previously disclosed that her biological father’s “drunk and aggressive” behavior was exactly what forced her late mother, Doris Rowland Garrison, to walk out on the union and not look back.

She continued, “I was angry at him. I was disappointed in him. I had all of those feelings of abandonment. think as a kid you just feel like if they’re not there they don’t want to be here. So that’s what I felt and that feeling sucked.”

After Kelly shot to stardom as a member of Destiny’s Child, she specifically gave instructions to her security at the time to never allow her father visit her backstage while the girl group was out on tour.