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Sparkle Issues Formal Denial After Niece’s Memoir Accuses Her of Enabling R. Kelly

Her niece has now publicly identified herself after decades as the case’s anonymous “Jane Doe.”

Overview

  • In an Instagram statement, Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards said any claim that she groomed, facilitated, or enabled harm to Reshona Landfair is untrue.
  • Edwards said she contacted child services when told Landfair spent unchaperoned time with R. Kelly and testified under oath in the 2008 state case.
  • Landfair’s memoir, Who’s Watching Shorty?, and recent interviews, including CBS Mornings and Rolling Stone, describe her aunt urging her to sit on Kelly’s lap and rub his head at age 12.
  • Landfair portrays that moment as the start of years of grooming, isolation, and control by Kelly.
  • Kelly is serving a 30-year federal sentence after 2021–2022 convictions, and no new investigations into Edwards are reported in the current coverage.