In 2008, American singer R. Kelly was cleared of child pornography charges after a month-long trial. But now, the 49-year-old recording artist, songwriter, record producer, and former professional basketball player has come out to reveal he was abused as a child by a female relative. According to R. Kelly, the abuse started when he was just 8 and continued up until he was a teenager. And he alleged the experience made him to start feeling horny and sexually active from a young age.
In an interview with Chris Heath for GQ Magazine, Kelly said it all started one day when he fell asleep in front of the TV and was awoken from “a crazy dream about Three’s Company” to find a woman playing with him.
Kelly said he he struggled with his abuser but was unsuccessful. He also added that he was warned not to tell anyone one happened between them or he will be beaten. ”I tried to push her away, but she wouldn’t stop until she was finished. When she was, she said, “You better not say shit to no one or else you gonna get a terrible whupping,” he told Heath.
He also revealed in the interview that a family friend also offered him money to masturbate him while he was younger and says the experience had a negative impact on his childhood.
“At first, I couldn’t judge it,” “I remember it feeling weird. I remember feeling ashamed. I remember closing my eyes or keeping my hands over my eyes. I remember those things, but couldn’t judge it one way or the other fully.”‘I, well, definitely forgive them. As I’m older, I look at it and I know that it had to be not just about me and them, but them and somebody older than them when they were younger. I looked at it as if there was a sort of like, I don’t know, a generational curse, so to speak,going down through the family.’
On what he thinks about what these family members did to him while he was a little child, he said he has forgiven them and thinks it’s a generational curse.
“I, well, definitely forgive them. As I’m older, I look at it and I know that it had to be not just about me and them, but them and somebody older than them when they were younger, and whatever happened to them when they were younger. I looked at it as if there was a sort of like, I don’t know, a generational curse, so to speak, going down through the family. Not just started with her doing that to me.”