R.
Kelly’s girlfriends defend superstar, deny brainwashing
Two women living with R. Kelly are defending the R&B
superstar charged with sexual abuse, saying in an interview aired Thursday that
their relationships with him are consensual.
Azriel Clary, 21, and Joycelyn Savage, 23, told US network
CBS that they “absolutely” are in love with Kelly, brushing off allegations
that the 52-year-old artist brainwashes women he keeps in homes that operate as
de facto sex cults.
“We live with him, and we’re in a relationship with him,”
Clary said of Kelly, who returned to jail Wednesday for failing to pay child
support.
“A very strong relationship as well,” added Savage.
Questioned on the nature of their sex lives with Kelly,
Clary said, “I would never share with no one what I do in or outside of the
bedroom.”
“There are people all over the world who have multiple
girlfriends,” she said. “It’s no different.”
Last month Kelly — dogged for decades by allegations
including child pornography, sexual abuse and false imprisonment — pleaded not
guilty to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse against four victims,
three of them minors. That case is not linked to women he currently lives with.
In 2017 a BuzzFeed report alleged the musician had kept
women as virtual sex slaves at his Chicago and Atlanta homes.
Clary and Savage dubbed accusations against Kelly
money-making schemes.
But Clary’s parents released a statement shortly after the
interview aired saying their daughter “is presently suffering from years of
mental abuse and manipulation by R. Kelly.”
“R. Kelly is a desperate liar and serial abuser of young
girls who should die in prison,” said the statement tweeted by lawyer Michael
Avenatti, who represents at least two of Kelly’s alleged victims.
“All of the victims and parents cannot be lying.”
CBS released the interview with the two women after airing
an emotional sit-down with Kelly himself, his first public comments since the
indictment against him.
“I didn’t do this stuff. This not me,” Kelly said, saying he
was “fighting” for his life.
“Whether they’re old rumours, new rumours, future rumours,
not true.”
Kelly — the star behind hits like “I Believe I Can Fly” —
remains in custody in Chicago after failing to pay $161,000 in child support
payments he owes to his former spouse and three children.
Kelly’s ex-wife Andrea Kelly also has previously accused the
artist of domestic abuse.
(AFP)