Joycelyn Savage, one of R.Kelly’s girlfriends who has stuck by him amid criminal charges, is finally speaking out and calling herself “a victim” of the R&B legend.
On Saturday, the 24-year-old reactivated her Instagram to publicize that she would be posting the story of her time with R. Kelly on the paid membership platform Patreon.
In the first post Saturday, she revealed how at the age of 17, she met Kelly in 2015 at one of his concerts. Kelly promised to jumpstart her music career.
“Baby girl you are going to be the next Aaliyah,” he would tell her.
In hearing his promises, she dropped out of college and moved in with Kelly.
“After these couple of months Robert started giving me commands, and making sure I call him by certain names. Like ‘Master’ or ‘Daddy’ which I didn’t really care for at the time, ” Savage wrote. “If I wasn’t getting paid or pursuing my dream I would’ve went home, but all of that didn’t stop just yet. But It started getting worse by day by day, he would raise his voice at me if I didn’t call him by those two names. If Robert called me I would have to reply with ‘Yes, daddy’ or ‘Please daddy’ he was so controlling.”
Kelly was arrested in Chicago in July on separate sets of charges, of which he has been accused of recruiting underage girls and women to have sex with him, brought by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and Chicago. He has pleaded not guilty. In addition to the two federal cases, Kelly is facing charges from state prosecutors in Illinois and Minnesota.
In her post, Savage said she was risking her life sharing her story.
The revelations from her are a change from her narrative of Kelly in recent years. In March, she sat down with Gayle King on CBS This Morning to defend their relationship. Alongside Kelly’s other girlfriend Azriel Clary, Savage pushed back against claims that he’s been sexually and physically abusive, and that he’s keeping them away from their parents.
She also claimed that her parents were trying to scam Kelly out of his money.
“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. And they’re just very upset,” Savage added.
Savage plans to share more of her story in coming days.