R. Kelly is currently out on bail.
American broadcaster CBS has conducted the first interview with R. Kelly since he got out on bail, after turning himself in and pleading not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated sexual assault.
CBS's Gayle King sat down with the singer, real name Robert Kelly, to discuss the litany of allegations against him, dating back decades.
Asked if he had ever slept with underage girls, Kelly said: "I'll sit here and say this. I had two cases back then... I said in the beginning of the interview that I cannot talk about because of my ongoing case now, but I will tell you this, people are going back to my past, and they're trying to add all of this stuff now to that. To make all of this stuff now... feels real to people."
When King told Kelly that the past was relevant, he quickly said: "Absolutely no it's not. Because for one, I beat my case. We can double-jeopardy me like that, it's not fair. When you beat your case, you beat your case."
The interview became more intense as it went on, with R. Kelly yelling directly into a camera and eventually crying: "That's stupid guys! Is this camera on? Use your common sense, forget the blogs, forget how you feel about me... How stupid would it be for me, with my crazy past, 'Oh right now I just need to be a monster and hold girls against their will and chain them up in my basement and don't let them eat and don't let them out'."
The accusations against R. Kelly were revisited in detail by Lifetime's recent documentary Surviving R. Kelly, in which multiple women came forward and claimed he had emotionally and sexually abused them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=BHgy97dRziQ
Clip via CBS Evening News
Other photos from the interview, which will be released in full later today (6 March) reveal that R. Kelly stood up at one point and appeared to be gesticulating aggressively.
https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1103102099397603328
Kelly will be back in court later this month.
