Last week, a “non-credible” threat shut down a New York screening of Lifetime’s upcoming docuseries, Surviving R. Kelly. Now, one of the women featured in the program is breaking her silence about what she thinks really happened.
Lisa Van Allen, who details her ordeal with the singer in Surviving R. Kelly, stopped by The Real Thursday to talk about the documentary and share how she felt after someone threatened to shoot up the screening.
“I think it was an act of desperation,” Van Allen said of the threat.
Though police are still investigating the incident, she said “everyone kind of knows who that could have been. The call came from Chicago.”
During the interview, Van Allen also said she hopes Surviving R. Kelly will raise awareness about about how to avoid abusive situations and to send support to the women currently with the singer.
“I want [the docuseries] to raise awareness. I want it to help someone else’s daughter. I hope that the girls that are there will get strength from watching this,” Van Allen said, alluding to the women who some have accused of being part of Kelly’s “sex cult.”
Van Allen also had a message for music fans.
“I want people to understand that if you’re buying his music, listening to his songs, if you’re going to his concerts you’re helping him do this to these young girls. You’re saying it’s okay,” she said.
Surviving R. Kelly features over 50 interviews with activists, music artists, Kelly’s alleged victims, ex-wife, some of the singer’s former associates, and two of his brothers, Carey and Bruce Kelly. The series promises to tell “the true story of R. Kelly’s controversial past,” starting at the very beginning of his life through the present day.
According to Lifetime, Surviving R. Kelly will “[shed]light on the R&B star whose history of alleged abuse of underage African American girls has, until recently, been largely ignored by mainstream media.”
The three-part series will premiere on January 3, 2019 at 9 p.m. on Lifetime.
