R Kelly's TV breakdown resurfaces as he is jailed for 30 years for sex trafficking

A video of R Kelly breaking down during a 2019 interview on CBS has resurfaced, after the R&B singer was jailed for 30 years for racketeering (dishonest business practices) and sex trafficking on Wednesday.

The “Bump N’ Grind” singer – real name Robert Sylvester Kelly – had maintained his innocence in an explosive interview with CBS This Morning journalist Gayle King, in which he said the allegations of sexual abuse are “not me”.

He said: “I didn’t do this stuff. This is not me. I’m fighting for my f***ing life.

“This is not true. That doesn’t even make sense.

“Why would I hurt all these women? Their mothers and fathers told me, ‘we’re going to destroy your career’.”

Asked by King whether he ever held a woman against her will, Kelly dismissed the question as “stupid”.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

He also claimed people were looking back to his past, after he was indicted on 13 counts of child pornography in 2002 but was acquitted of all charges in 2008.

But in September last year, a jury found him guilty on multiple counts of racketeering - relating to bribery and forced labour – and in violation of an anti-sex trafficking law known as the Mann Act.

The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer had denied all charges.

Sentencing Kelly for the racketeering and sex trafficking offences, Judge Ann Donnelly said the musician had taught his victims that “love is enslavement and violence”.

She continued: “Sentencing another human being is probably the most difficult thing a judge has to do.

“It is fair to say, Mr Kelly, that you are a person that had some great advantage. You had worldwide fame and celebrity, untold money.

“Using your status and celebrity … you had a system of people that you used to lure young fans into your orbit. Having your minions troll for young people at the mall … handing out your phone number … for the opportunity to meet R Kelly.

“You fancied yourself [as] a genius that can do ‘whatever I want because of what I give to the world’.”

As part of the sentencing, victim impact statements from seven women were presented anonymously to the court – parts of which Judge Donelly said she would “never forget”.

One, penned by a woman with the pseudonym of Angela, said Kelly was “the pied piper of R&B, both in music and in technique and in approach”.

She continued: “Success and love … you presented these glittering gems as if they were gold.

“With every addition of a new victim you grew in wickedness, cockiness, diminishing any form of humanity or self-awareness, which soon became the breeding ground for your God-like complex.

“You were doing, saying and encouraging despicable things that no one should be doing. We reclaim our names from beneath the shadows of your afflicted trauma.”

Another woman, known only as Jane Doe Number Two, told Kelly: “You are an abuser, you are shameless [and] you are disgusting.”

He is now due to face additional charges – relating to child pornography and conspiracy to obstruct justice – in Chicago in August.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.