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*Four more women came forward on Friday (May 4) with allegations of sexually abusive and inappropriate behavior by R. Kelly, adding on to the existing accusations against the crooner dating back more than two decades.
In a previously-reported Buzzfeed News report by reporters Jim DeRogatis and Marisa Carroll, two women speak out for the first time: one about a “mentally and physically abusive relationship” she says she had with the singer for four years during the late ’90s, and another woman who claims her daughter has been “brainwashed” and is still involved with Kelly’s alleged “abusive cult,” which DeRogatis first reported on in July.
Separately, The Washington Post also reported Friday that it spoke with six women who claimed to be in abusive relationships with Kelly, two of whom, Tracy Sampson and Patrice Jones, have never publicly spoken about him before. That article also recounted incidents from the early 2000s in which Sony Music executives at the time allegedly enabled or did not try to stop Kelly’s behavior.
The reports were published just days after an initiative undertaken by WOC, the women of color branch within Time’s Up, to join the online #MuteRKelly campaign.
Read details about the new accusers below, via Variety:
Lizzette Martinez, one of the two women in the Buzzfeed report, says her relationship with Kelly began in 1995 when she was a 17-year-old high school student who met the singer at a Miami shopping mall. She says Kelly, then 28, knew she was underage when he took her virginity — the age of consent in Florida is 18 — and the relationship continued despite Kelly striking her on five occasions and pressuring her to engage in sexual acts against her will. She says the relationship ended in early 1999.
The other woman coming forward is a Chicago mother of three whose last name is being withheld to protect her daughter’s privacy. Michelle says her now-27-year-old daughter — who BuzzFeed News called “N.” — began a relationship with Kelly when she was 17, the age of consent in Illinois. “N.” is said to be involved with Kelly’s alleged “cult,” which DeRogatis reported on in July. The new report says two of six women have reportedly left the “cult” in recent months, although two sets of parents, the Savages in Georgia and the Clarys in Florida, say that for three years, Kelly has largely prevented their daughters — who were 19 and 17 when they met him — from contacting family and friends while living with him in his rented properties. The parents and other sources say that Kelly tells the young women when to eat, when to sleep, how to dress, and to perform sex acts with him that he records, and he punishes them mentally and physically when they disobey him. The reports also say that the women are frequently locked in rooms without being fed or allowed to go to the bathroom. Local police looking into the matter have said they found nothing to investigate.
Several reports of Kelly’s behavior are typified by Martinez’s account. “It was very controlled: what I wore, how I spoke, who my friends were, who I could bring around.” She also said that Kelly pressured her to perform some sexual acts against her will. “I did these things, and I felt like it was always — he was directing stuff. You know, it felt really weird. He was really overbearing… I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ But he has a way with people, with women. He’s just so controlling, so abusive.”
She also says he struck her five times during their relationship. “Then he’s a nice guy afterward: ‘I love you. I’m sorry. You know, I’m going to help you. I’m going to do everything for you, but you have to listen to me.’ It was always I wasn’t listening to him. You know, a typical domestic abusive relationship, and this was, like, my first relationship in my life.”
After the publication of this story Friday, representatives for Kelly provided a statement to BuzzFeed News denying the “many dark descriptions put forth by instigators and liars who have their own agenda for seeking profit and fame.” The statement emphasized that the women living with Kelly are adults who can make their own choices, and that law enforcement wellness checks determined that the women were safe. It also accused the parents of failing to return their daughters’ calls because they are “angling for a financial windfall.”
To read the full Buzzfeed report, click here.
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