Sad, but not totally surprising…
On Tuesday, one of R. Kelly’s former live-in girlfriends claimed she wasn’t truthful when she defended the disgraced singer in an explosive 2019 interview with CBS This Morning’s Gayle King.
The admission came when the woman — who identified herself to King by name during the interview — testified anonymously in the performer’s federal racketeering trial using a pseudonym. In her interview with King, the woman described a loving relationship between herself, Kelly, and the other woman.
But while speaking in court on Tuesday, the woman said the I Believe I Can Fly artist was in fact pulling the strings the whole time. She claimed Kelly stayed on set while Gayle asked them questions, and he would cough “to let us know he was there” and make sure the two women backed up his denials of abuse. (At the time, King reported on CBS This Morning that Kelly was present and coughed at times when she interviewed girlfriends Azriel Clary and Joycelyn Savage.)
The woman said in court that she would now describe her relationship with Kelly — whom she allegedly has not had contact with since January 2020 — as abusive, admitting she didn’t feel that way at the time.
The woman went on to claim that Kelly promised to promote her music career when they first started dating, but ultimately never followed through with his promise. She alleged he once punished her by forcing her to have sex with a man nicknamed “Nephew” — who she claimed had also been “groomed” from a young age — while the singer watched in the room.
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The accuser also testified that the hitmaker told her not to watch the 2019 Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, which saw multiple women coming forward with allegations of abuse from the Grammy winner. The woman claimed Kelly told her they “were to immediately change the channel” if the series came on the TV.
Kelly has been accused by federal prosecutors in New York of operating a criminal sex trafficking network made up of his managers, bodyguards, drivers, assistants, and others who recruited girls and women at concerts where he was performing and other locations.
The 54-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. His defense attorneys blasted the accusations as an overreach by feds, saying the relationships were consensual and that the women enjoyed the “notoriety of being able to tell their friends that they were with a superstar.”
Kelly also has pending criminal cases in Minnesota and Illinois — both to which he has pleaded not guilty. He faces 10 years to life in prison if he is convicted in the New York case.
[Image via CBS]
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