Exclusive: 3LW’s Kiely Williams On Being “Mocked For A Lisp I Don’t Have” & ‘The Encore’

When the line-up for new show ‘BET Presents The Encore’ was unveiled, one of the names most buzzed-about was Kiely Williams.

The 3LW star may have hung up her mic many moons ago, but she’s maintained an arguable omnipresence in the mediascape by way of headlines involving her past bandmates and that “broken promithes” meme.

Williams also notably appeared in the highly viral clip from the show’s unaired pilot episode. Taped many years ago, it saw her lock horns with momentary Destiny’s Child member Farrah Franklin. Upon its unearthing last year, the clip created an immediate hunger for more, leading to the show eventually landing at BET.

Armed with this momentum, she makes clear that she still has a lot to offer the music industry…albeit with a twist.

Viewers of the show will have seen that while castmates such as Aubrey O’Day, Shamari DeVoe, and Nivea are uniting to form a supergroup, Williams elected to take a different role – creative director.

With that decision already causing friction (the type that makes for TV gold), That Grape Juice‘s Chet Kincaid caught up with Williams and Pamela Long of Total to discuss the show and more.

During the candid chat, the 34-year-old explained that she found the public scrutiny hard and insisted that she is “memed and mocked for a lisp I don’t have.”

She also expanded on her pivot into creative direction and why it’s her true calling.

Watch above and be sure to tune into ‘BET Presents The Encore’ Wednesdays at 10/9c on BET.