R. KELLY RUNNING SEX ‘CULT’
Uses mind control on kept women: report
R&B SINGER R. Kelly controls and manipulates the lives of multiple young women in a situation described as a “cult” at his Chicago and Atlanta area homes, parents and former members of his inner circle claim in a new report.
The 50-year-old singer allegedly houses six women at his residences and regulates everything they do — including what they wear, what they eat and what they do sexually, BuzzFeed News reported Monday, citing three women who used to be part of Kelly’s circle.
The parents of one live-in woman told BuzzFeed that Kelly first met their daughter, an aspiring singer who was not identified, in 2015 when she was 19. They had hoped Kelly would help her with her music career.
But the woman moved in with the singer, whose full name is Robert Kelly, at some point after that initial meeting — and has since lost touch with her parents almost entirely, her mother, identified as J., said.
J. said she’s only received two short text messages from her daughter since last December — one on Christmas and one on Mother’s Day — and hasn’t seen her in person since Dec. 1.
“It was as if she was brainwashed. (She) looked like a prisoner — it was horrible,” J. told BuzzFeed of the last time she saw her daughter.
“I hugged her and hugged her. But she just kept saying she’s in love and (Kelly) is the one who cares for her. I don’t know what to do. I hope that if I get her back, I can get her treatment for victims of cults. They can reprogram her. But I wish I could have stopped it from happening.”
J. told the website she’s reached out to police and FBI agents to share everything she knows about the situation, but her daughter is not considered a missing person because she’s of age and says she is doing well. The girl’s parents don’t look at it that way, however, telling authorities they think their daughter is “being held against her will,” according to a Cook County, Ill., police report obtained by the Daily News. In a separate police report filed by the Johns Creek Police Department in Duluth, Ga., last December, J. called Kelly “abusive” and said she felt her daughter was part of the singer’s “cult.” But police did not find anything unlawful during a check at Kelly’s homes in Chicago and Duluth. Kelly’s former assistant Cheryl Mack, meanwhile, told BuzzFeed the girls moved in with Kelly expecting to live a life of luxury. “No. You have to ask for food. You have to ask to go use the bathroom,” Mack said. “(Kelly) is a master at mind control ... He is a puppet master.”
Two other former Kelly associates, Asante McGee and Kitti Jones, told BuzzFeed they lived with the singer and had sexual interactions with him before leaving within the past five years, adding that Kelly governed their phones and social media use while they were there.
McGee, Mack and Jones listed Kelly’s other live-in women last year as four women between the ages of 18 and 26, as well as a 31-year-old who has since left, according to the report.
Kelly’s attorney, Lisa Mensch, denied the allegations in a statement to the Daily News.
“Mr. Robert Kelly is both alarmed and disturbed by the recent revelations attributed to him,” she said. “Mr. Kelly unequivocally denies such accusations and will work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his name.”
The allegations are the latest against Kelly, who was also accused of having sex and urinating on an underage girl in a video that emerged in 2002. He was found not guilty of child pornography charges in 2008.