R. Kelly ‘cult’ claims and past controversies
Singer R. Kelly is accused of holding women in a “cult.” Here’s a look back at the Grammy-winner's past controversies
Another woman accused controversial R&B singer R. Kelly of mentally and physically abusing her when she was a teenager, and yet another alleged that the crooner is currently brainwashing her daughter as part of his alleged “cult.”
Lizzette Martinez told BuzzFeed she met R. Kelly in 1995, when she was 17 years old, at a shopping mall in Miami. She said the crooner’s bodyguard gave her his number and the two got together and formed a relationship. Martinez, now 42, said she lost her virginity to Kelly, who knew she was underage at the time. Kelly was 28 years old at the time of the alleged sexual relationship.
“The first time I had sex with him there was a party going,” she said. “Some of his crew gave me alcohol and I was drunk basically when we had sex.”
Martinez’s mother and friend confirmed her account.
Martinez said the R&B star was controlling and told her what to wear and who to speak to. She alleged Kelly hit her a few times during their relationship and that she was pressured to perform sexual acts on Kelly “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 said.
Martinez said she would travel with the singer and stay in hotels waiting for him but grew tired of it after a while. She said she became pregnant with his child and Kelly wanted her to get an abortion, but she didn’t due to her religious beliefs.
Martinez said she miscarried the baby in a hotel in Chicago.
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“I guess it was for the best. I didn’t want to go through that abortion,” she said.
The relationship ended in 1999, after Martinez became ill with mononucleosis and was hospitalized due to complications. She said she contacted a lawyer who represented underage girls but ultimately decided not to pursue legal action against Kelly.
“I wasn’t in it ever for money, and I didn’t want to go through that. I mean, I knew he was wrong. I was hurt by him. But I couldn’t rehash it again. It was just too new. It was just too much pain. I had a new life.
R. Kelly has been accused of sexual assault and "grooming" women in his cult. (Reuters)
“I see Robert [Kelly] as a child still. He’s a grown man, obviously. He’s 51. But I don’t think he ever grew up. I don’t know if that makes sense to you. I see him as childlike, but he’s a predator,” she concluded.
Meanwhile, a woman who identified herself as Michelle said her 27-year-old daughter “N” [whose real name was not used] also got together with Kelly when she was 17. Michelle alleged her daughter is being “brainwashed” and is a part of the singer’s “cult.” She said she has not been in contact with N for three months and is afraid she is in trouble.
N’s friend, Jerhonda Pace, said she and her friend met Kelly in 2007. She said she started a sexual relationship with Kelly in 2009, and soon after, N did as well.
“She [N] was working at McDonald’s like any teenage girl would,” Michelle told BuzzFeed. “I remember coming home from work one day, and this random girl was there at my house. I’m like, ‘Who is this?’ And she said, ‘Oh, this is Jerhonda. I know her from school.’ So they had their little lie planned out.”
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Michelle said her daughter told her she was going to work as Kelly’s personal assistant and announced in 2014 that she was moving in with the star in Atlanta. After that, she saw her less and less.
“The last time I saw her was the summer of 2016… I didn’t know she was in town, and one day she had an earache or something, and she called me and told me to meet her at Northwestern Hospital. That was actually the last time I seen her — I want to say, like, Aug. 13, 2016,” Michelle said.
She said she tried to contact N but Kelly would pick up the phone and tell her she was not available or was out.
“I don’t have no number for her,” Michelle said. “Anytime I need to talk to her, I have to go through [Kelly], and then he’ll say, ‘Oh, she’s at the mall. She’s busy.’ And one time I asked him — he FaceTimed me, and I said, ‘Why you ain’t letting my daughter come home?’ And he was like, ‘She don’t want to come home.’ N-----, you’re a liar! Anybody knows me and my daughter, we are best friends, like literally, you know?”
She said she decided to speak up because she hoped something could be done.
“Something’s got to be done,” Michelle said. On her decision to go public after months of hesitation, she adds, “I don’t know if God just spoke to me, but I woke up that day and I said, ‘Enough is enough.’”
Earlier this week, the Time’s Up campaign posted an open letter on social media and The Root calling on various companies to sever ties with Kelly for the “safety and dignity for women of all kinds.”
R. Kelly reportedly married the late Aaliyah when she was 15 years old. (Reuters)
The organization is devoted to helping women in the aftermath of sexual abuse and urged further investigation into Kelly's behavior.
Time's Up cited as examples of Kelly's alleged abuse his marriage, which was later annulled, to the late Aaliyah when she was just 15, and child pornography charges brought against him a decade ago. Kelly has denied wrongdoing, and he was acquitted in 2008 of the child pornography charges.
BuzzFeed reported Kelly’s “world is crumbling.” He has one major concert slated this year after the Love Jam in Chicago was canceled. Other women, including his former girlfriend, Kitti Jones, have come forward accusing the singer of sexual abuse and grooming women. A few women have come forward alleging the singer was holding several women in a sex cult.
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