In his first interview since being charged with sexually abusing underage girls, R. Kelly says the new accusations against him are all lies and says it’s unfair to charge him again after he beat similar charges a decade ago.
But, he acknowledged, he is “fighting for my f—— life.”
The embattled R&B singer was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse last month and was jailed for a weekend after failing to pay the $100,000 needed for his release.
Snippets from CBS anchor Gayle King’s hour and 20 minute, sit-down interview with Kelly were released Tuesday night. The longer interview is set to air Wednesday morning on CBS.
“Do you still sit here and say you have never been with underage girls? Can you really say that?” King asked Kelly.
“I had two cases back then that I said in the beginning of the interview that I would not talk about because of my ongoing case now … but I will tell you this, people are going back to my past … and they’re trying to add all of this stuff now to that, to make all of the stuff that’s going on now feel real to people,” replied Kelly.
NEW: R&B singer R. Kelly, charged with aggravated sexual abuse, angrily denied the accusations in a new interview with @GayleKing, insisting the claims are “rumors” & “not true.”
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) March 5, 2019
Kelly has pleaded not guilty; see the first clips here & watch @CBSThisMorning Wednesday at 7a ET. pic.twitter.com/5yT1QwPsIq
When King argued that the singer’s past is relevant, given the history of accusations against him involving underage girls, Kelly pointed to his acquittal on child porn charges in 2009 that involved a video allegedly showing him having sex with an underage girl.
“I beat my case. … We can’t double jeopardy me like that. It’s not fair. … When you beat your case you beat your case,” he said.
King said she wasn’t talking about that case but “about the other cases where women have come forward and said, ‘R. Kelly had sex with me when I was under the age of 18,’ ‘R. Kelly was abusive to me emotionally and physically and verbally,’ ‘R. Kelly took me in a black room where unspeakable things happened.’”
“Not true,” said Kelly.
When asked if the singer ever held anyone against their will, Kelly grew angry and started to talk directly into the camera.
“How stupid would it be for R. Kelly with all I’ve been through in my way way past … to do that?
“Oh right, now I just need to be a monster and hold girls against their will and chain them up in my basement and don’t let them eat and don’t let them out.”
“I didn’t do this stuff,” said R. Kelly through tears. “This is not me. I’m fighting for my f—ing life.”
Attorney Michael Avenatti, who says he represents one of the victims included in the indictment said Kelly was right to cry.
“R. Kelly’s tears are out of fear and despair. Because he knows that after over two decades of sexually abusing underage girls, we blew this wide open and have him and his enablers dead to rights,” he tweeted.
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