On Thursday, CBS aired part two of its dramatic interview with R. Kelly, during which the singer carried on with the waterworks. As the conversation moved to Kelly’s unpaid child support — which led to him being jailed later on Wednesday, hours after the first part of the interview aired — Kelly lashed out at his ex-wife, Drea Kelly, for what he believes has been a smear campaign: “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!” King interjects, “Your ex-wife says you abused her.” Kelly erupts, “LIE!” His handlers can be heard in the background telling Kelly to calm down, while King requests tissues for Kelly, which he refuses.
Kelly continued to deny the abuse allegations his ex-wife made in the Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly, saying there was never a domestic-violence call made during their 13-year marriage. “She’s not telling the truth,” he says. He later choked up over an incident in which his ex-wife said he “hog-tied” her and attempted to kill her. “I don’t know how to hog-tie people. What would I hog-tie? 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!” he says, clapping his hands. “What kind of woman would tear down a dad who’s trying to have a relationship with their kids?” Asked what kind of relationship he has with his children, Kelly said “zero, but I know my kids love me.” After the documentary aired, Kelly’s estranged daughter wrote an Instagram post calling her father a “monster.”
As for his apparent dire financial situation, Kelly claims his associates have been stealing money from him while they were connected to his bank account. According to Kelly, he went to Bank of America for the first time ever by himself the day before he was arrested for criminal sex abuse and attempted to transfer the $350,000 left in his account into a new one. He says he was then unable to access that new account in order to pay his bail as it was in the process of being opened. Kelly says any claim that he has no money due to settlements with women who’d previously sued him for allegedly sexually abusing them when they were underage is a “lie.” Kelly remains in Cook County jail on Thursday where he won’t be released until he pays the full $161,000 he owes in child support.
