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BWSTimes Staff
R. Kelly’s March 6, 2019, interview with Gayle King on CBS will forever be remembered as the day the music mogul was minimized to just a first name — ‘Robert.’
In the middle of what appeared to be a public display of a mental breakdown on national television, the artist, R. Kelly, jumped up and down, agitatedly shouted at the top of his lungs, and pounded his chest in full aggravation as Gayle, poised, calm, and unmoved, delivered to him the tough questions that everyone wanted to know.
GAYLE KING: They are still talking about you with underage girls. Do you still sit here and say you have never been with underage girls? Can you really say that?
R. KELLY: I sit here and say this: I had two cases back then that I said in the beginning of the interview that I would not talk about because of my ongoing case now.
KING: OK.
KELLY: Fair enough, but I will tell you this: people are going back to my past, OK? That’s exactly what they’re doing. They’re going back to the past, and they trying to add all of this stuff now to that. To make all of this stuff that’s going on now feels real to people.
KING: But the past is relevant with you with underage girls?
KELLY: Absolutely, no it’s not.
KING: Why?
KELLY: Because for one I beat my case. When you beat something, you beat it.
KING: You were acquitted. You were acquitted.
KELLY: You can’t double-jeopardy me like that. You can’t. It’s not fair. It’s not fair to nobody. When you beat your case, you beat your case.
KING: But I’m not talking about the one case in which you were acquitted. I’m talking about the other cases where women have come forward and said, “R Kelly had sex with me when I was under the age of 18. R Kelly was abusive to me emotionally and physically and verbally. R Kelly took me in a black room where unspeakable things happened.” This is what they’re saying about you.
KELLY: Not true.
KING: These aren’t old rumors.
KELLY: Not true. Whether they’re old rumors, new rumors, future rumors, not true.
KING: Correct me if I’m wrong that you’ve never held anybody against their will?
KELLY: I don’t need to. Why would I? How stupid would it be for R. Kelly, with all I’ve been through in my way, way past, to hold somebody, let alone 4, 5, 6, 50, you said – how stupid would I be to do that?
KING: I didn’t say you were holding
KELLY: That’s stupid, guys! Is this camera on me?
KING: Yes, it’s on.
KELLY: That’s stupid! Use your common sense. Forget the blogs, forget how you feel about me. Hate me if you want to, love me if you want. But just use your common sense. How stupid would it be for me, with my crazy past and what I’ve been through – oh right now I just think I need to be monster, hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement, and don’t let them eat, don’t let them out, unless they need some shoes down the street from their uncle!
KING: Robert
KELLY: Stop it. You don’t quit playing! Quit playing! I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my f—ing life!
Gayle called the artist, Robert. In a way that only a mother could call a child when he or she needs to face the reality of being caught.
Robert’s reactions clearly displayed his full emotional distress.
He panicked like a person caught in a vacuum with the air being sucked out and knows that his life is pretty much over.