R. Kelly gave a wild interview that aired Wednesday on CBS This Morning, where he spoke out about—and against—allegations that he has had sexual relationships with underage women. While the first segment of the interview was marked with emotional outbursts from the singer that had interviewer Gayle King accusing him of “playing the victim,” perhaps the most startling part came in a segment shown later in the program.
King brought up the topic of Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary, two women whose parents claim they have been brainwashed by Kelly. Savage is currently 23, and Clary is 21. Kelly admitted during the interview that he is in a relationship with both of them.
“I love ’em and it’s almost like … they’re my girlfriends. It’s like, we have a relationship. It’s real. And I’ve known guys all my life who’ve had five or six women, so don’t go there on me, ’cause that’s the truth.”
When the topic of age came up, he said, “I just look at legal,” and that he doesn’t care if the women are much younger.
“There are older men that like younger women, there are older women that like younger men,” he said.
When asked if he’s an older man who likes younger women, he replied, “I’m an older man that likes all women.”
Kelly said he met Savage when she was 19 and her father brought her to a concert. Clary’s parents said the singer also met their daughter at one of his concerts.
“Did you start seeing her at 17?” King asked, regarding Clary.
“Absolutely not!” Kelly shot back.
“Did you have sex with her when she was 17?” King asked.
“Absolutley not! Absolutely not.” Then the kicker: “Although her parents wanted me to!”
King disputed this, saying, “her parents claim they have text messages that show that you had sex with her when she was 17.”
“Claim,” Kelly said. “Claim.”
King questioned the type of love that could exist between him and the young women that would cause the women to cut ties with their families. Kelly flipped the question in a shocking way, asking what kind of parents would give him their kids?
“What kind of father, what kind of mother will sell their daughter to a man?”
When asked who did this, Kelly didn’t address the question, but he went on to say, “How come it was okay for me to see them until they wasn’t getting no money from me?”
“You’re saying the parents handed their daughters, Azriel and Joycelyn, over to you?” King asked.
“Absolutely.”
Clary’s parents issued a statement through their attorney Michael Avenatti following the interview.
Below please find a further statement from my clients Alice and Angelo Clary in response to the R. Kelly interview. pic.twitter.com/eg9R7dt0l1
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 6, 2019
“We have never received a penny from R. Kelly. We have never asked R. Kelly for money,” they said. “And we never ‘sold’ our daughter to him or anyone else. R. Kelly is a desperate liar and seial abuser of young girls who should die in prison. All of the victims and parents cannot be lying.”
[Image via CBS screengrab]
