R Kelly has accused the parents of the women he is alleged to have sexually abused, of ‘selling’ their daughters to him.
The 52-year-old singer has sat down with CBS News host Gayle King to address the serious allegations against him for the first time.
In the 80-minute interview, R Kelly described the women, including Jocelyn Savage and Azriel Clary, as his ‘girlfriends’ and claimed that he began dating Clary when she was aged 21 and not 17.
R Kelly said: ‘They’re my girlfriends, we have a relationship. It’s real. I’ve known guys all my life to have five or six women.
‘I don’t look at [whether they’re] much younger than me, I just look at legal. I don’t know if you’re married. One might be older than the other.
‘I’m a man that loves all women.’
Recalling how he met Savage, R Kelly explained: ‘I didn’t go looking for a Jocelyn Savage, I was doing my show. [Her father] asked a friend of mine to bring her on the stage with R Kelly.’
Revealing the status of his relationship with Clary, the R&B singer said: ‘Right now, I’m seeing her. She’s 21.’
When asked if he had sex with Clary when she was 17 years old, he replied: ‘Absolutely not. Although her parents wanted me to.’
Accusing the parents of ‘selling their daughters’, R Kelly continued: ‘What kind of father, what of mother will sell their daughter to a man? How come it was OK for me to see them until they wasn’t getting no money from it?
‘If I were going to take my daughter and she’s 19 to a 49-year-old’s concert, I’m not going to take her to the stage and leave her.’