Another Woman In R. Kelly's Circle Speaks Out About Sexual Abuse Accusations

By Rachel Cromidas in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 19, 2017 9:49PM

A woman who says she has been a member of R. Kelly's "inner circle" told Jezebel that she could confirm some of the disturbing allegations against the singer that recently came to light: that he is involved with about half a dozen young women whom he allegedly tries to control sexually and psychologically.

These young women are all in their late teens or early to mid-20s, the woman said, meaning that they are above the age of consent; but still, their ages fuel concerns that R. Kelly is taking advantage of them, including a recent petition calling for R. Kelly's label to drop him. The anonymous source told Jezebel that R. Kelly has boasted that he "raised" one such teenage sex partner since she was "14 or 15" years old—an accusation that the website could not substantiate, and R. Kelly's legal representative denied.

R. Kelly has long faced accusations that he has sexually coerced or abused young women and girls who are too young to consent. But while he has settled numerous lawsuits out of court, he was found not guilty of criminal child porn charges. On Monday, Buzzfeed published a bombshell article by Chicago journalist Jim DeRogatis, who has been investigating accusations against R. Kelly for over a decade. In the article, parents of a 21-year-old woman currently involved with R. Kelly accused the singer of running a sexually charged, cult-like environment where he controls the woman and others. The singer's attorney has denied the accusations, and the 21-year-old, Joycelyn Savage, did a video interview with TMZ this week saying she is happy and unharmed.

In Jezebel's latest update, an anonymous woman in her mid-20s, whom Jezebel identifies as "Kim," to protect her privacy, told Jezebel that she herself met R. Kelly at a concert a year ago, when she was invited onstage and later given his number at an after party. She met up with R. Kelly at his hotel room and had sex with him in his tour bus, according to the article. She shared text messages and photos with Jezebel to prove that she was involved with the singer, including a photo of the singer sleeping in a hotel room.

Kim said she saw Kelly about ten times, sometimes in Chicago, where Kelly put up her and other women at the Homewood Suites by Hilton on Grand Avenue.

Kim said she was never ask to live with R. Kelly, was never told where she was allowed to travel, never signed a non-disclosure agreement, and never had her phone taken away. However, she described R. Kelly as "very controlling," with a set of rules for the young women on how they could interact when they were in his company, including requiring them to call him "Daddy."

“When we’re out we’re not allowed to look at anyone,” she said. “We have to keep our heads down. If we’re back in his studio sitting on the couches and he has friends across the room at the bar we can’t look at each other or communicate with each other.” The girls are also instructed to “tell on each other,” she said. “If we’re in an Uber and we chat up the driver we’re supposed to tell him this girl did this or that. He’s very controlling and manipulative. He likes to be in control.” The women are all instructed to call Kelly “Daddy” at all times, she said, while he refers to them as his “babies.” The women can’t enter a room without knocking three times and waiting for permission to enter; they also have to ask permission to leave, she said.

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Kim said that she’s never witnessed Kelly force himself sexually on any of the girls, but that his control over them is absolute.

“He never makes threats,” she said. “But the girls are so eager to do whatever he wants. He’ll wake us out of a dead sleep and say to this girl, ‘Suck my dick,’ or to these two girls, ‘Kiss on each other,’ and immediately without thought they jump right to it. It’s just bizarre. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before honestly.”

Kim also told Jezebel that R. Kelly records his sexual encounters with the women—similar to the claims made in the Buzzfeed article—adding, “A lot of times he doesn’t have sex with the girls, he just likes to watch them on each other and records them.”

Kim said she had never witness R. Kelly behave violently, as the Buzzfeed article claimed, but she described a time R. Kelly "punished" a 19-year-old in her presence:

Kim said that she and the girl were instructed by Kelly to “take off your clothes and act like you miss each other.” He got out his iPad and started filming, she said, but was dissatisfied by the 19-year-old’s performance. He told Kim to sit on the couch and took the 19-year-old into another room. Twenty minutes later, he called Kim in. Kim knocked in the proper way, then walked in to find the younger girl nude except for one of Kelly’s bigger pieces of jewelry, a heavy chain.

“He had his iPad recording and she was naked except for a big chain and she was running laps from one end of the room to the other,” Kim remembers. “She was running laps around the room and apologizing. She kept saying, ‘I’ve been bad, I’m sorry Daddy,’ shit like that. And I’m standing there and she starts apologizing to me.”

Kim said she told her it was all right, but Kelly cut her off. The younger girl continued in tears, she said, telling her, “I know I have to do what Daddy says, I have to act like I miss you more, I wasn’t getting into it.”

Read the full article here.