R. Kelly’s Ex-Girlfriend Speaks Out About His Alleged Physical and Emotional Abuse

R. Kelly Photo: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

In July, BuzzFeed published an explosive report alleging R. Kelly had been holding a group of young women in a “sex cult.” Now, his former girlfriend, Kitti Jones, is speaking out in an interview with Rolling Stone about the alleged physical and emotional abuse she suffered while they were together.

Jones told Rolling Stone that she met Kelly in 2011 at an after-party at his Dallas concert while she was working as a DJ for a radio station. By that November, she had quit her job, sold her car, and moved into Kelly’s Chicago apartment — where he had rules about what and when she could eat, when she could go to the bathroom, what she could wear (baggy sweatpants when she was out), and more. Jones says he also physically abused her.

In January 2013, Kelly moved Jones from his apartment to a nearby recording studio, which had several rooms for living quarters, where he reportedly housed Jones and other girlfriends. The women were allegedly kept separate from each other, and cameras monitored their every move.

Per Rolling Stone:

Two months into living at the studio, Jones says, Kelly began using starvation on her as punishment for not following his orders. Jones says the longest she went without food was two and a half days, though single days without a meal were not uncommon.

Jones told Rolling Stone that she met another one of Kelly’s girlfriends that March, when the singer allegedly brought the women in naked and told her to crawl to Jones and perform oral sex on her.

Jones claims her coerced sexual encounters with women became more frequent as time went on. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, I didn’t want to do it and I would tell him I didn’t want to do it,” Jones claims, adding that she once vomited after performing oral sex on another one of Kelly’s girlfriends.

Eventually, Jones started to contemplate suicide. “I just said, ‘I’m gonna kill myself and it’s gonna be his fault,’” she told Rolling Stone. “‘I can either kill myself or kill him. What use am I when I walk out of here?’” But in August 2013, Jones told Kelly she wanted to visit her son in Dallas — and never returned. The entire interview is harrowing, and can be read here.

R. Kelly’s Ex-Girlfriend Alleges He Physically Abused Her