In a sneak peek of an interview that will air tomorrow on CBS “This Morning,” R&B star R. Kelly denied accusations that he sexually abused several women.
The interview was his first since since being charged with 10 separate counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse last month.
The video started when co-host Gayle King asked R. Kelly if he had sexual relations with underage girls. R. Kelly avoided the question.
“They are still talking about you with underage girls. Do you still sit here and say you have never been with underage girls. Can you really say that?” King asked.
“I sit here and say this: 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,” Kelly replied. “Fair enough, 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. To make all of this stuff that’s going on now feels real to people,” he continued.
When King pushed back, claiming Kelly had been accused of having relations with underage girls, Kelly claimed it was not relevant because “I beat my case. When you beat something, you beat it.”
“You were acquitted,” King responded.
“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,” Kelly said.
Kelly then brought up more instances of accusations that did not involve the times he was acquitted:
“But I’m not talking about the one case in which you were acquitted,” King said. “I’m talking 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.’ This is what they’re saying about you.”
“Not true,” Kelly said.
King pointed out that the rumors were not old but Kelly again denied the accusations.
“Not true. Whether they’re old rumors, new rumors, future rumors, not true,” Kelly said.
In a second clip of the interview, R. Kelly began to become more visibly emotional while denying the accusations.
“Correct me if I am wrong, that you had never held anyone against their will,” King said.
“I don’t need to. Why would I?” R. Kelly asked. “How stupid would it be for R. Kelly with all I’ve been through in my way way past to hold somebody, let alone, four, five, six, fifty you said. How stupid would I be to do that? That’s stupid guys. Is this camera on me? 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,” he went on in his emotional rant. “Oh right now I just think I need to be a monster and hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement and don’t let them eat and don’t let them out, unless they need some shoes down the street,” Kelly said sarcastically.
“Stop it, y’all quit playing, quit playing,” Kelly said as he started to cry angrily. “I didn’t do this stuff, this is not me, I am fighting for my f****** life.”
The full twenty-minute interview will air Wednesday.
