R. Kelly lashes back at abuse allegations in impassioned interview

Just one day after R. Kelly’s explosive interview with Gayle King aired in part on CBS This Morning, the morning show shared more of the discussion, this time focusing on the R&B singer’s finances amid multiple sexual abuse allegations against him.

Kelly has previously been accused of multiple sexual abuse allegations and inappropriate encounters with girls and young women, but renewed attention to the allegations came with the recent release of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly docuseries. Kelly has repeatedly denied all accusations.

On Wednesday, Kelly returned to jail for unpaid child support in the amount of $161,663. Kelly’s publicist told ET that the singer offered to pay $50,000 to $60,000 in court and set up a payment plan, but the judge denied the offer.

“He was disappointed. He felt rejected. He was down. You could see the air go out of him. He never expected that. He was never looking forward to that. He never knew that was coming,” the publicist said, adding that the singer’s team is actively working on coming up with money needed to get him released on bail. Kelly’s next court date is March 13.

In his CBS This Morning interview, Kelly told King that he doesn’t know how he can pay child support, alleging that he can’t work and that his ex-wife, Andrea Lee, is “destroying” his name. The pair share three children, Joann, 21, Jay, 19, and Robert, 17, all of whom Kelly said he has “zero” relationship with despite saying, “I know my kids love me. I’m in love with my kids. I love my kids.”

“How can I pay child support? How? If my ex-wife is destroying my name and I can’t work? How can I work? How can I get paid? How can I take care of my kids? How? Use your common sense,” he said through sobs and screams.

“Your ex-wife says you abused her, Robert,” King said.

“Lie!” Kelly yelled, before detailing his marriage proposal to Lee and further denying the abuse allegations. In Surviving R. Kelly, Lee claimed that she went to the National Domestic Violence Awareness Hotline and, on a 17-question survey, “there was only two things on that list that Robert hadn’t done to me.”

“Thirteen years being married… I flew in on a helicopter with a damn puppy and I proposed to Drea, who I was in love with, and told her, ‘Hey, look. I make mistakes. I’m not perfect,'” Kelly told King. “We got married. OK? We had three beautiful kids. Not once have I ever had a domestic call at the house and all this that and the other. It never happened. OK?”

“She’s not telling the truth,” he added. “I love her to death. I have nothing against her still. That is my kids’ mother… I’m not disrespecting her by saying she’s not telling the truth, I’m just being honest.”

“Somebody sent me something on my phone and it said that I hogtied her. I don’t know how to hogtie people! Why would I hogtie her?” he continued. “My kids is listening to this, all of this nonsense and I ain’t been able to spend no time with them. This is real. This is not a lie. What kind of women would tear down a dad who’s trying to have a relationship with their kids? You know how many kids need a relationship with their father?”

Kelly’s financial situation recently came into the news when he was initially unable to pay $100,000 bond after turning himself in on 10 counts of aggravated criminal and sexual abuse in Cook County, Illinois, on Feb. 22. According to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, the charges against Kelly allegedly involve four victims, three of whom are minors, with claims going back to 1998. Kelly ended up spending the weekend in jail, before eventually posting the money and being released on Feb. 25.

Kelly further opened up to King about his finances, telling the journalist that he went to the bank alone for the first time just “three weeks to a month ago,” where he learned of his financial situation from a bank teller. While some speculate that Kelly’s apparent lack of cash flow is due to settlements he’s paid out in previous cases, he called those allegations “a lie.”

“Here’s the deal. So many people have been stealing my money. People was connected to my account,” he told King. “I went by myself for the first time to Bank of America. Didn’t know what I was doing. Didn’t know what the hell was going on… Because I was so tired of not knowing where my money was.”

“I had like $350,000 in the bank and I told her, ‘Look. Take that. I’m gonna start a new account and that’s the way it is,'” Kelly continued, of how much money he has left. “She said, ‘OK. It’s gonna take six to seven business days to clear.’ Does that make sense?”

Following the intense interview on Wednesday, ET sat down with King and she revealed her own emotions during the tense sit down.

“I didn’t see any point in both of us overreacting,” she said of her calm demeanor during the interview. “The worst thing you could do is try to tell somebody, ‘It’s OK, settle down’ — that only makes them angrier. I just thought, let me sit here quietly. I made eye contact to let him know, ‘I’m still sitting here waiting for you,’ but I never felt I was in danger.”

“I was never afraid, I never thought that R Kelly was going to hurt me,” King added. “I knew he was upset with me. I knew that he didn’t like some of the questions, but I never thought he was going to physically attack me … I was only concerned because he was so amped up and very angry that he might accidentally hit me, so I did worry about that.”

Additionally, on Wednesday, Detroit Police confirmed that they’re investigating Kelly for allegedly having intercourse with a teenage girl almost two decades ago.

That same day, CBS announced that it will air The Gayle King Interview with R. Kelly, a one-hour special with more of King’s interview with both Kelly and the two women who live with him, Azriel Clary and Joycelyn Savage. The special will air on the network Friday, March 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

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