Explosive moments from R. Kelly's interview with Gayle King

This week the world has been getting snippets of R. Kelly’s intriguing interview with Gayle King, where he wanted to tell his side of the story amid allegations against him of predatory and abusive behaviour towards underage girls.

At the beginning of January this year, a six-part documentary debuted on the Lifetime Channel in the US, in which several women accuse R. Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, of abuse and misconduct. The series has been airing in South Africa on DStv’s Crime Channel since mid-February.

On February 22, Kelly was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and he handed himself in to the police. On February 25 he posted bail after pleading not guilty in court.

Kelly then agreed to a sit-down with Gayle King for CBS This Morning, with the first clips from the interview broadcast on Wednesday. These clips not only included an interview with the musician, but also with two of his current live-in girlfriends, and they are all quite the revelation.

Even though a few clips have been released by the network, the full interview will only be broadcast on Friday evening in the US, according to Variety.

But here are some interesting points that have already come out from them:

KELLY SAYS ALL 'SURVIVING R. KELLY' WOMEN LIED

The singer told King that he knows what is being said about him on various platforms and that it’s all lies. When Gayle asks him if his ex-wife Andrea Kelly also lied in the docu-series, Kelly says she is lying but he still loves her. Alluding to the allegations, he claimed: “I don’t even know what a cult is, but I know I don’t have one”. This was followed by emotional hand-pounding as he incredulously wondered whether people thought he was stupid enough to believe he could get away with holding girls hostage.

HE REFUSED TO ACKNOWLEDGE HIS PAST CHARGES

When Gayle King brought up the 2008 charges against him as being a factor in the current case, R. Kelly vehemently disputed this, arguing that his past should not be considered, because the cases were resolved in a court of law. “You can't double jeopardy me like that. When you beat your case, you beat your case.” 

KELLY DENIED HAVING EVER HAD SEX WITH UNDERAGE GIRLS

When Gayle directly asked him if he has ever had sex with underage girls, Kelly explicitly denied this. When Gayle asks him whether he likes women that are much younger than him, he states that “I don’t look at much younger than me, I just look at legal.”

LAMENTING HIS CAREER & FIGHTING FOR HIS CHILDREN

At one point during the interview Kelly screams into the camera: “I gave you 30 years of my f*cking career! … You killing me, man!” He is presumably referring to his fans and the general public whom he now deems to have turned their backs on him.

Yet, at another point in the interview he states that he is getting emotional because of his children, whom he believes want to have a relationship with him but are under pressure to avoid him. He says he has not been allowed to spend time with them.

“I'm really not really fighting for my career here,” he exclaims. “I'm fighting for my rights & I'm fighting to have a relationship with my kids most of all, more than anything.”

The exchange resulted in an iconic image of a hysterical Kelly standing up and hovering over a sitting King, who calmly allows the singer to rant on.

Kelly was taken into custody for failing to pay for more R2m in child support to his wife and kids, according to the BBC. In the interview he claimed he can’t pay child support if his wife’s accusations are costing him work. He was working throughout 2018 and even had a tour planned to Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka before the series aired. Rolling Stone even reports that two venues in Germany were selling out for April 2019 concert dates.

HIS GIRLFRIENDS DEFEND HIM

Azriel Clary, who is 21, and 23-year-old Joycelyn Savage, both boldly told King that they are in a relationship with the 52-year-old musician and that it was perfectly normal because many people around the world have multiple girlfriends.

When Kelly explained the situation to King he defended himself by saying: “I’ve known guys all my life that have five or six women, so don’t go there on me.” A listen to his 2018 song, I Admit, suggests that his perception of paedophilia and other sexual crimes to be a matter of opinion.

The young women told Gayle King that their parents are the manipulative ones who encouraged them to have sexual relations with Kelly and tried to extort him for money.

KELLY THE VICTIM

When King asked Kelly if he needed help, he passionately agreed with her. “I need somebody to help me not have a big heart,” he told King. “Because my heart is so big, people betray me and I keep forgiving them.”

With that, it is clear that R. Kelly not only dismisses the allegations against him, but as King tells him, he clearly sees himself as the victim.