In his first interview following his arrest last month on sexual abuse charges, an emotional and unyielding Robert Kelly, more popularly known as R Ke
In his first interview following his arrest last month on sexual abuse charges, an emotional and unyielding Robert Kelly, more popularly known as R Kelly denied having sex with underage girls and portrayed himself as a victim of a social media-fueled smear campaign. The embattled singer during the interview screamed, cursed and pleaded in a sit-down with Gayle King, a host of ‘CBS This Morning.’
“Hate me if you want to, love me if you want. But just use your common sense. How stupid would it be for me, with my crazy past and what I’ve been through — oh, right now I just think I need to be a monster, hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement, and don’t let them eat, don’t let them out! I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me, I’m fighting for my life. I have been assassinated. I have been buried alive, but I’m alive,” he said.
The 52 year old was charged last month in Chicago with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four women, three of whom were minors at the time. His arrest came after a lifetime documentary, “Surviving R. Kelly,” brought new attention to accusations that he had mistreated women and revived prosecutors’ interest in his behavior. He was released from jail last week after a woman describing herself as a friend of his posted a $100,000 bond. In the interview, Mr. Kelly told Ms. King that he agreed to speak because he was tired of all of the lies.
“Everybody says something bad about me. Nobody said nothing good. They was describing Lucifer. I’m not Lucifer. I’m a man. I make mistakes, but I’m not a devil. And by no means am I a monster,” R Kelly said, referring to the documentary.
Ms. King followed up by asking Mr. Kelly if he had done anything wrong, to which Mr. Kelly said: “Lots of things wrong when it come to women, that I apologize. But I apologized in those relationships at the time I was in the relationships.”
According to prosecutors, one of the three underage girls was the same one who appeared in a sex tape with R Kelly that resulted in a 2008 trial on child pornography charges. The girl did not testify then, and Mr. Kelly was found not guilty after his lawyers successfully argued that his identity could not be proved. R Kelly referred to his acquittal in the interview, telling Ms. King: “You can’t double jeopardy me like that. You can’t. It’s not fair. Absolutely not,” he said when she asked him if he had broken any laws.
Some of the interview covered allegations separate from R Kelly’s criminal case: that he has held women in a kind of sexual and emotional captivity, dictating their every move, including when they can go to the bathroom.
“I love them,” R Kelly told Ms. King. “It’s like they’re like my girlfriends. We have a relationship. It’s real and I know guys like — I’ve known guys all my life that have five or six women, okay. So don’t go there on me.”
As for their age, R Kelly said: “I don’t look at much younger than me. I just look at legal,” and that he was an “older man that loves all women,” regardless of age.
