The unnerving sexual accusations waged against R. Kelly have gotten too big to ignore, and his attorney and assistant—both women—have resigned in the wake of the recent BBC documentary R Kelly: Sex, Girls and Videotapes. Even his confidants, it seems, are jumping ship, possibly marking the beginning of tangible consequences for the 51-year-old.
According to the BBC, the newly revealed allegations include Kelly “knowingly and intentionally" infecting a 19-year-old woman with an unspecified STD, with an official criminal complaint following suit, and the Dallas police investigating. Diana Copeland, Kelly’s executive assistant for more than 10 years, presumably can’t handle the idea any longer that she’s working for a predator who allegedly “grooms” women as young as 14. Neither can Linda Mensch, his entertainment attorney of four years, although she did reportedly defend the singer during last year’s allegations he was running a sex cult.
Mensch has confirmed that she “no longer represented Mr. Kelly or his entities,” with Copeland confirming she no longer serves as his assistant as of April 1. The latter worked for Kelly during his infamous 33-chapter Trapped in the Closet opera, as well as on the 2007 R. Kelly Live: The Light Up Tour. According to the BBC, this is just the beginning, with a source entrenched in R. Kelly’s camp suggesting additional staff members are thinking of leaving as well.
In case you’ve been living under a rock all these years—or have been trapped in some sort of closet contraption—Kelly’s ex-girlfriend Kitti Jones reportedly confirmed that she was part of his “sex dungeon” in which she was told to have sex with him and unidentified others “more than 10” times. According to Jones, it’s likely that some of the other girls in Kelly’s harem were underage. He even confirmed this to Jones, claiming he had been “training” one of the girls since she was 14 to be a “pet” of his.
“I saw that this girl was dressed like me, that she was saying the things I’d say, and her mannerisms were like mine,” she said. “That’s when it clicked in my head that he had been grooming me to become one of his pets, too. He calls them his pets.”
Naturally, Kelly has vehemently denied all of these disturbing allegations. His business affiliates—Spotify, Ticketmaster, RCA Records—have reportedly all declined to comment on hosting, promoting, or distributing the singer’s music. This is a developing story, with new details and statements sure to come.
