The father of one of R. Kelly’s live-in girlfriends Friday strongly denied allegations — made by his own daughter in a national television interview — that he was trying to blackmail or extort money from the embattled singer.
Speaking to reporters at a Century City news conference alongside his attorney, Michael Avenatti, Angelo Clary also denied pushing his daughter into a relationship with Kelly for financial gain. Kelly, who has been charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse, was jailed this week in Chicago for failing to pay child support.
“So many calls came in of support from young kids to show us that they know this couldn’t be true and that that’s not Azriel,” Clary said of his daughter’s CBS interview, during which she disparaged her parents as money-hungry and “telling lies for money.”
“For me and my wife to sit there and see our own child saying those type of things to us, I don’t even know how I feel,” Angelo Clary said. “I’m angry, I’m hurt.”
He said his daughter is being manipulated by Kelly.
“That’s not my daughter. I tell you what, that’s not my daughter,” he said. “The woman she has become now was like robotic, like somebody that’s (got) an on and off switch.”
Speaking to CBS’ Gayle King along with Kelly’s other live-in girlfriend Joycelyn Savage, Azriel Clary lashed out, saying, “You guys are believing in some (expletive) facade that our parents are saying. This is all (expletive) lies for money. And if you can’t see that, you’re ignorant and you’re stupid.”
The 21-year-old Clary accused her parents of pushing her into a relationship with Kelly in hopes of making money — in effect selling her to the singer.
“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,” she said.
She said her parents wanted her to do such things “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.” She also claimed her parents told her to lie about her age when she met Kelly and tell him she was 18.
Angelo Clary flatly denied the allegations and said he has never received money from R. Kelly.
“To hear my daughter discredit us and talk so blunt about us that we would sell her — first of all videotape her, that’s like — I don’t even know where she got that from,” he said.
He called Kelly a “monster” and habitual liar who manipulates young girls into doing his bidding. He said despite the explosive TV interview, he is still devoted to his daughter.
“If I had the opportunity for her to hear this, what I would tell her is there’s nothing that she can say or do in front of this man, around this man or in his presence that will ever stop me from loving my child,” he said.
Speaking to his daughter, he said, “All is forgiven. I know that’s not you. What I want to do is get you help … and bring you back to who Azriel Clary really is.”