On Thursday, CBS This Morning aired part two of Gayle King’s interview with R Kelly, as well as her conversations with Kelly’s two girlfriends, Azriel Clary and Jocelyn Savage, whose parents believe the women have been brainwashed and are being held against their will.
In part one of the interview, which aired Wednesday, King hammered Kelly on allegations of sexual abuse, raping underage girls, and other misconduct.
In the segments released today, Kelly spoke about his dire financial state, revealing that he only has around $350,000 to his name. “So many people have been stealin’ my money. People was connected to my account. I went into – I went by myself for the first time to a Bank of America. Didn’t know what I was doing. Didn’t know what the hell was going on,” he said.
On Wednesday, Kelly was taken back into custody after failing to pay child support to his ex-wife, Andrea Kelly. In his interview with King, Kelly accused his ex-wife of “destroying my name.” He said through tears: “How can I pay child support? How?! If my ex-wife is destroying my name and I can’t work? How can I work? How can I get paid? How can I take care of my kids? How?”
Kelly also denied claims that he abused his ex-wife, allegations she made in the Lifetime docu-series Surviving R Kelly. “I believe I’m telling y’all. I’m telling y’all. I flew in on a helicopter with a damn puppy,” Kelly exclaimed. “And I proposed to Drea who I was in love with and told her, ‘Hey, look, I make mistakes. I’m not perfect.’ … We got married. Okay. We had three beautiful kids … Not once have I ever had a domestic violence call at the house and all this that and the other. It never happened. Okay.”
Meanwhile, Clary, 21, and Savage, 23, described their relationship with Kelly. Both women told King that they “love” Kelly and disputed allegations that he’s abusive. Clary denied ever having sex with Kelly before she was 18 years old, despite her father claiming otherwise. Clary also accused her parents of encouraging her to make “sexual videos” with Kelly and then blackmailing him for money.
“I’m crying, because you guys don’t know the truth! You guys believe in some f***ing facade that our parents are saying,” Clary said at one point. “This is all f***ing lies for money, and if you can’t see that, you’re ignorant and you’re stupid as f***, because you want to be. All because that’s the world we live in. Negativity sells, gossip is what sells, rumors are what sell,” Clary said.
King later revealed that Kelly’s team had agreed that wouldn’t be in the room for the interview with Clary and Savage, but that Kelly entered after the interview began and coughed very loudly “so they were aware that he was there.” King also said that Kelly attempted to stop the interview several times.
Asked specifically about Clary and Savage, Kelly said, “I love them, they’re my girlfriends. We have a relationship — it’s real.” He dismissed criticism of the large age discrepancy between him and the women. He said he doesn’t look at whether the women are “younger than me,” but rather if they’re “legal.”
Kelly then accused the women’s parents of attempting to profit of their daughters. “What kind of father, what kind of mother, will sell their daughter to a man? How come it was OK for me to see them until they weren’t getting no money from me?”
CBS will air more of King’s interview with Kelly during an hour-long primetime special on Friday night.
Last week, Kelly pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse relating to misconduct with four women, three of whom were underage at the time of their alleged assaults. f convicted, he could face between 40-70 years in prison.
