Two young women living with alleged sexual abuser R. Kelly say they love him and have accused their parents of trying to blackmail the singer.
Azriel Clary, 21, and Jocelyn Savage, 23, dismissed their parents' claims that they were brainwashed by the 52-year-old, and denied being held captive by him in an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning.
The two women said that they were both in a relationship with Kelly and that the three of them were "family."
"We both have our individual relationships with him, and we all are family all together," Clary said. "We have our moments where we sit and watch movies all together, we go to amusement parks all together."
Clary refused to address King's questions about whether they were having a "three-way sexual relationship with Kelly," saying that "there are people all over the world who have multiple girlfriends."
The women's parents have publicly accused Kelly of being a predator and emotionally and sexually abusing their daughters while keeping them hostage.
But the two women are now hitting back at their parents, and accusing them of lying about the alleged abuse in order to blackmail Kelly.
They spoke out after King's explosive interview with Kelly, where he denied having sex with anyone under the age of 17. He claimed all the women who had spoken out against him were lying because they felt "scorned" by him.
Kelly has been charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in Illinois and is currently in jail over $161,663 in unpaid child support.
The Detroit Police Department on Wednesday said it was looking into allegations of criminal sexual conduct made by a victim against Kelly, stemming from a possible 2001 incident in Detroit when the victim was 13 years old.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said that authorities had made several attempts to "follow up with the victim."
"We have reached out, at the direction of the victim, to her lawyer and we are eagerly waiting to speak with her. We have not made contact with her," the statement said.
BuzzFeed News was the first to reveal in 2017 that police had been told by parents that Kelly was holding their adult daughters in his Georgia home and Chicago recording studio while controlling every aspect of their lives.
In her interview with King, Clary alleged that her parents made her lie about her age when she first met Kelly at the age of 17.
"So when I met him, he thought that I was 18," she said, denying that Kelly had sex with her when she was 17.
She said that her parents forced her to take photos and "sexual videos" with Kelly when she was 17. She said they wanted to "use it against him" to blackmail him, "which is exactly what they're doing."
"Both our parents are basically out here trying to get money and scam, because they didn't agree on what happened, you know, with music or whatever it could be," said Savage, who was 19 when she met Kelly. "And they're just very upset."
Clary also accused her father of being "manipulative." She said that her parents threatened to put her "naked pictures all over the world" to ruin both her and Kelly if he didn't send them money.
"You're trying to solicit me like I'm some fucking ho," Clary said about her parents. "I'm not, I'm your child."
Her parents, Alice and Angelo Clary, denied asking Kelly for money and called him a "desperate liar" in a statement issued through their lawyer, Michael Avenatti, on Wednesday.
"We have never received a penny from R. Kelly," the Clarys' statement said. "We have never asked R. Kelly for money. And we never 'sold' our daughter to him or anyone else. R. Kelly is a desperate liar and a serial abuser of young girls who should die in prison. All of the victims and parents cannot be lying."
Savage's parents also denied the accusations through their lawyer, Gerald A. Griggs.
"At no point did the Savages sell #JoycelynSavage to @rkelly," Griggs tweeted on Wednesday. "No money was ever requested or given to the Savages. Stop the lies or show the receipts. #RKelly. Tim Savage has never met R Kelly."
After Kelly's interview aired on CBS This Morning, Jocelyn Savage made a phone call to her estranged parents. Her parents have made numerous efforts over the years to reconnect with their daughter after she began living with Kelly.
In what Griggs described as a "scripted" message, Savage told her parents, “I have told you guys a million, million times that I am OK where I am and I’m happy, so I just want to let you know that."
When her younger sister came on the line, Savage became silent, which led Griggs to believe that "the script was broken."
"You could clearly tell she was being told what to say and it was scripted," Griggs told reporters after the phone call. He said Savage's conversation with her parents reconfirmed the "level of control" that Kelly had over their daughter.
CBS This Morning noted that Kelly "snuck into the room" during Clary and Savage's interview with King, despite assurances that he would not be present.
Responding to her daughter's interview, Savage's mother tweeted Thursday, "As the mom of #JoycelynSavage, my #heart is broken💔 to wake up & watchour#daughters..."
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