CHICAGO (CelebrityAccess) — In a combative multi-part interview with embattled singer R. Kelly told “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King that the sexual abuse charges leveled against him are lies.
Kelly, who has been charged with sexual abuse of four women, three of whom were underage at the time the abuse was alleged to have occurred, characterized the charges as persecution and attempts to cash in on his fame.
“You can start a rumor on a guy like me or a celebrity, just like that,” Kelly told CBS News’ Gayle King. “All you have to do is push a button on your phone and say, ‘So and so did this to me, R. Kelly did this to me,’ and if you get any traction from that, if you’re able to write a book from that, if you’re able to get a reality show, then any girl that I had a relationship (with) in the past that it just didn’t work out can come and say the same thing.”
Kelly also suggested that, with his past history of abuse allegations, engaging in any improper conduct with women would be “stupid” on his part.
“Hate me if you want to, love me if you want. But just use your common sense,” Kelly told King. How stupid would it be for me, with my crazy past and what I’ve been through – 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, don’t let them out, unless they need some shoes down the street from their uncle!”
As the interview progressed, Kelly’s denials appeared to bring him to tears and at one point, he leaped from his chair and proclaimed “I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my f***ing life!”
Kelly, citing his ongoing legal issues, declined to discuss historical cases of abuse leveled against him, noting that he “beat the case” in 2002 after a videotape allegedly showing R. Kelly urinating on an underage girl surface, leading to him being charged on 21 counts of child pornography. At the time, he claimed the man in the video was not him.
While the 2002 Chicago investigation was underway, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office conducted a search of Kelly’s residence in Davenport, Florida, where investigators allege they found a dozen images of R. Kelly “involved in sexual conduct with the female minor” which investigators alleged was the girl in the urination video.
Kelly was charged behind the Florida pictures in 2003 but the charges were dropped due to lack of probable cause for the search warrant, according to contemporary media reports.
