R Kelly denies allegations in new interview: “Quit playing! I didn’t do this stuff!”
R Kelly has broken his silence in a new interview with Gayle King for CBS This Morning. The embattled R&B singer was charged last month in Chicago on 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse relating to misconduct with four women, three of whom were underage at the time of their alleged assaults.
In excerpts of the video released ahead of tomorrow morning’s airing, Kelly vehemently denies the allegations made against and says the current charges amount to double jeopardy.
When King asks whether he’s been with underage girls, Kelly alludes “to two case back then” that he cannot discuss due to “my ongoing case now.”
“But I will tell you this: people are going back to my past, OK? That’s exactly what they’re doing. They’re going back to the past, and they trying to add all of this stuff now to that,” Kelly continues. “To make all of this stuff that’s going on now feels real to people.”
He goes on to reference his 2008 acquittal of child pornography charges: “I beat my case. When you beat something, you beat it… You can’t double-jeopardy me like that. You can’t. It’s not fair. It’s not fair to nobody. When you beat your case, you beat your case.”
King counters Kelly by noting that many of the allegations are brand new. “Not true,” Kelly responds. “Whether they’re old rumors, new rumors, future rumors, not true.”
In a second excerpt, King asks Kelly whether he’s ever held women against their will. “I don’t need to. Why would I?” he responds. “How stupid would it be for R. Kelly, with all I’ve been through in my way, way past, to hold somebody, let alone 4, 5, 6, 50, you said – how stupid would I be to do that?
Kelly, now visibly upset, proceeds to look into the camera and say: “That’s stupid! Use your common sense. Forget the blogs, forget how you feel about me. 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 monster, hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement, and don’t let them eat, don’t let them out, unless they need some shoes down the street from their uncle!
“Stop it,” Kelly adds. “You don’t quit playing! Quit playing! I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my f*cking life!
King also sat down with two young women currently living with R. Kelly, Azriel Clary and Joycelyn Savage, whose parents say they are being held against their will. That interview will air Friday, March 8th.
