Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary are defending their relationship with R. Kelly in the latest installment of Gayle King's morning TV interview about the allegations against the singer.
Both women told King their parents are attempting to get money from Kelly. The pre-recorded interview aired Thursday morning, hours after Kelly was arrested for failing to pay $161,000 in child support.
“Our parents are basically out here just to get money,” Savage, 23, told King.
“Your parents, you’re saying the same — you're saying,” King said.
“Well, both our parents, 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 said.
Their parents have denied those claims. Gerald Griggs, the Savages' attorney, also denied the claims at a news conference Wednesday.
“I can state here unequivocally that at no point have the Savages requested any money from Mr. Robert Sylvester Kelly, they have never received any money from Robert Sylvester Kelly, they don’t want any money from Robert Sylvester Kelly,” Griggs said. Joycelyn Savage’s family, parents, Timothy and Jonjelyn Savage, and her younger sisters, Jori, 11, and Jailyn, 18, were also at the conference.
Savage called her family in Atlanta on Wednesday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
"I've told you guys a million, million times that I'm OK, and I'm very happy, you know where I'm at," she said during a three-minute phone call to Griggs' office.
Related: 'I'm very happy': Alleged R. Kelly 'sex-slave' Joycelyn Savage calls family after two years
Clary, now 21, told King her parents encouraged her to make sexual videos with the singer when Clary was just 17.
"OK, so when I first met Robert, my parents told me to lie about my age. So, when I met him, he thought that I was 18," Clary said during the interview. "On top of that, when I was 17, my parents were actually making me, trying to get me to take photos with him, take sexual videos with him, all kinds of stuff."
“Wait, wait, wait. Your parents encouraged you to do sexual videos with R. Kelly?” King asked.
“Yes, and they said, because if they ever have to blackmail him, what they’re trying to do now, they can use it against him, which is exactly what they’re doing,” Clary said.
Savage nodded in agreement, adding, “Everything that she’s saying is true.”
Related: R. Kelly denies sexually abusing young girls: ‘I didn’t do this stuff! It’s not me’
After her segment with the two women, King told her “CBS This Morning” co-hosts that Kelly was just around the corner as Clary and Savage were being interviewed.
“He was around the corner, behind them, so they couldn’t see him. But at points in the conversation he would cough very loudly (King coughs for affect) like that, so they were aware he was there.”
“I just wanted to say, as a mother, ‘Get your things, let’s go. You are 21, and you are 23, and he is 52 years old,’” King said. “I know many people believe that age is just a number, but when you’re looking at these young women, they parrot a lot of what he is saying.”
The interview can be watched below:
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