RéAnna Simone Kelly, daughter of Simone’s daughter Lisa Simone Kelly, had taken to Twitter on Friday to defend Chloe Bailey’s racy version of the singer’s iconic civil rights anthem “Feeling Good.”
“Everyone’s coming at @ChloeBailey for her performance… But what y’all don’t understand is that grandma was a free-spirited woman herself,” RéAnna tweeted. “She would’ve loved that performance as much as I do! Relax. Chloe killed it.”
Later, Kelly responded to a Twitter user who asked why Simone’s estate would create a Twitter account for Simone, who died several years before the social media platform launched.
“We as her family don’t run her estate anymore,” Kelly wrote. “It was taken away from us & given to white people. Our family name was DRAGGED in the media. We get NO royalties, nothing. Wanna hold someone accountable? Ask Kamala Harris why she came for my family.”
Kelly claimed Harris, who was the California Attorney General from 2011 until 2017, of taking away her family’s rights and bullying her mother in court.
Lisa Simone Kelly was made administrator of Simone’s estate and a charitable trust she had established after the singer’s death in 2003.
Court documents show she lost control after she was accused of “breaching her fiduciary duty” to both the estate and the trust.
According to the documents, Harris’ office had sought to surcharge Lisa Simone Kelly for almost $6 million, plus over $2.5 million in interest. Her office ultimately reached a settlement with Simone’s daughter, who was stripped of her role as administrator and agreed to relinquish her rights to her mother’s work.
RéAnna Simone Kelly accused the vice president of leaving her grandmother’s estate “in shambles” and the family struggling financially.
“As I said before, Ask her why she separated my family. Ask her why my grandmothers estate is in SHAMBLES now,” she wrote. “Ask her why we as her family no longer own the rights to anything. Ask her why she bullied my mother in court and my mom almost killed herself from the depression.”
She continued: “Ask her why my mother had a gag order put on her and can not speak on these things. Ask her why she didn’t even want my mom to be able to say she was Nina Simone’s daughter. Ask her why she wanted us to walk away with NOTHING.”
RéAnna Simone Kelly added that Harris rubbed salt in her family’s wounds by having John Legend perform “Feeling Good” on the night of her inauguration as vice president.
On Saturday, Lisa Simone Kelly posted a video on Instagram saying her daughter’s comments have “started a fire” and that she stands by everything that was said.
“She’s speaking her truth, she’s speaking the truth of our family,” she added.
RéAnna Simone Kelly and Harris’ office have been contacted for additional comment.
