Two women who say they are in a relationship with R. Kelly are defending the R&B singer, who faces allegations of sexually assaulting teenage girls.
In a tearful interview broadcast on Thursday, Azriel Clary and Joycelyn Savage (aged 21 and 23, respectively) accused their own parents of trying to extort money from the performer.
The parents of the two women say their daughters have been brainwashed by 52-year-old Kelly.
“I’m crying because you guys don’t know the truth,” Clary said as she sobbed during the interview with CBS.
Clary called her father “very manipulative,” and accused her parents of telling “lies for money.”
“If you can’t see that you’re ignorant and you’re stupid,” she said.
Kelly, who was in the room during the women’s interview, pleaded not guilty last month to charges that he sexually assaulted three teenage girls and a fourth woman. He has denied similar abuse allegations for decades. He was tried on child pornography charges in 2008 and found not guilty.
The new charges were brought after a Lifetime television documentary series featured interviews with seven women, including his ex-wife, Andrea Kelly, who accused him of emotional and sexual abuse.
Clary said her parents encouraged her to make “sexual videos” with Kelly when she was 17 so they could blackmail him. She also said her parents had threatened to leak naked photos of her unless Kelly sent them tens of thousands of dollars.
Both sets of parents have denied ever asking for money or receiving money from Kelly.
“We never ‘sold’ our daughter to him or anyone else … All of the victims and parents cannot be lying,” Alice and Angelo Clary said in a statement on Wednesday.
A lawyer representing Timothy and Jonjelyn Savage also said the couple has never asked for or received money from Kelly. The couple also said they have not spoken to their daughter for two years.
“At no point did this family sell their daughter to anyone or provide their daughter for anything for money,” attorney Gerald Griggs said Wednesday during a news conference.
