Gayle King Says R. Kelly’s Camp “Pleased” With His Unhinged Interview
Jeff Glor began Wednesday’s CBS Evening News with word R. Kelly is back behind bars for failing to pay $161K in child support to his ex-wife.
He immediately pivoted to Gayle King’s news-cycle dominating interview with the embattled R&B singer, a small portion of which Glor’s newscast aired previous night, after which much more aired on Wednesday’s CBS This Morning.
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King, seated with Glor, said Kelly knew he was headed back to court but did not believe he would wind up behind bars again.
King said he spoke to Kelly’s “camp” after the interview aired “to check in to see how they were doing.”
“They said they were pleased with the interview,” she revealed, though what had aired included the singer screaming at the camera, “You’re trying to kill me!” and loomed over King, and his publicist stepping in to calm him down as the cameras kept rolling.
“They were pleased?!” Glor asked, gobsmacked.
“Yup,” King assured. “They thought it gave Robert a chance to tell his story and Robert is prepared to
.
answer any question.”
Kelly’s camp, she said, really appreciated that she said on CBS This Morning she was never afraid of R. Kelly during the interview and did not think herself in any danger when he became unhinged, though she again said she worried he might accidentally hurt her as he flailed his arms about angrily.
She was afraid he was about to walk out of the interview.
King said she asked him about his finances during the interview, having been surprised to learn, when Kelly was arrested last week, he could not post $100K bond.
“At the height of his game he was worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” she told Glor, revealing Kelly told her he cannot work and blames his ex-wife.
The evening newscast aired a portion of King’s interview with Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary, the two women living with Kelly who he refers to as his girlfriends.
The parents of Savage, 23, and Clary, 21, who met the singer while in their late teens, believe their daughters have been brainwashed into being part of an alleged sex cult.
“Our parents are basically out here just to get money,” Savage insisted to King.
“Both our parents, both our parents are basically out here trying to get money and scam, because they didn’t agree on what happened, you know, with music or whatever it could be. And they’re just very upset,” she said.
Savage’s parents held a press conference Wednesday, claiming Kelly lied in his interview with King, and that he has kept their daughter estranged from her family for two years. The parents of both women insisted they never asked for, nor received, any money from Kelly, calling him a desperate liar and serial abuser of young women.
“The allegations Mr. Kelly has brought against my family is very horrific,” Joycelyn’s father, Timothy Savage, said. “From Day 1 the only thing we wanted to do was actually to see our daughter, hear from our daughter, and make sure she’s fine.”
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