Jill Kelley, the
Florida woman whose complaint to the FBI may have sparked the downfall
of CIA Director David H. Petraeus, has Philadelphia roots.
Kelley, 37, hails from a Lebanese family that emigrated to Philadelphia in the mid-1970s.
Her parents, John and Marcelle Khawam, had businesses in the area,
including a restaurant in Voorhees. The couple still live in Washington
Crossing, Bucks County, according to public records, and Kelley's older
brother, David, is a lawyer in South Jersey.Kelley emerged Sunday as the woman who contacted the FBI after allegedly receiving threatening e-mails from Petraeus' biographer, Paula Broadwell, according to the Associated Press and other news outlets. Her complaint to the FBI led investigators to e-mails that revealed Petraeus and Broadwell were having an affair.
Kelley works as an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. According to a statement she and her husband released Sunday, they have been friends with Petraeus and his wife, Holly, for five years.
A 1988 Inquirer feature about the Khawam family's culinary roots described Kelley's father as an accomplished musician in their homeland and her mother as a chef who liked to entertain political and cultural figures.
In the late 1980s, the Khawams ran a Middle Eastern restaurant in Voorhees called Sahara. The restaurant was closed within a few years, according to a 1990 bankruptcy petition the couple filed.
John Khawam also owned an auto tag store in Northeast Philadelphia, records show.
The family lived for a while in Northeast Philadelphia, then moved to Huntingdon Valley. Jill Khawam and her twin sister, Natalie, were the youngest of four children.
About a decade ago, both women moved to Tampa, where Jill's husband, Scott Kelley, works as a surgeon.
Natalie Khawam, a lawyer and single mother, lives with them, according to a bankruptcy petition she filed earlier this year.
It was not clear whether Kelley attended college. Kelley and her husband issued a statement asking for privacy.
Contact John P. Martin at 215-854-4774, jmartin@phillynews.com.
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