R. Kelly’s girlfriend Joycelyn Savage says she was impersonated online
Joycelyn Savage, one of singer R. Kelly’s two girlfriends, says she was impersonated on a paid-subscription blog and on Instagram and still supports the embattled R&B star, who is facing sex-crime charges in four jurisdictions.
“It’s just really, really, really sad that someone would pretend to be me, and put it out in the world and say that I’m a victim, that I am brainwashed. OK, I’m a sex slave — Lord have mercy, it doesn’t get worse than that — and that I have Stockholm syndrome,” Savage said in a video posted Wednesday on TMZ. “That is just really sad.”
On Nov. 22 and 23, two new posts went up on a years-old, unverified Instagram account that had nearly 90,000 followers and Savage’s name on it. They pointed followers to a Patreon blog, which requires users to pay to access content, that was also written under her name. In the three posts that went up on Patreon, the author detailed a sexually abusive relationship with Kelly.
However, on Nov. 26, after Patreon could not positively identify Savage as the author, the blog was taken down. Supporters’ money was refunded.
“I am truly tired of all the lies that they are saying about the man we love so much, and our best friend, R. Kelly. It is said that I have left him, and that he has abused me, and all kinds of nonsense,” Savage said during a portion of the video where she was reading from her phone. “I have said before, none of it is true.”
Gerald Griggs, attorney for the Savage family, spoke to TMZ on their behalf.
“We deeply desired to hear her story and in her own voice outside of the presence of Robert Sylvester Kelly or anyone associated with him,” he said. “For nearly three years, Joycelyn Savage has not been able to speak outside of a controlled environment created by Mr. Kelly. Her video today was not any different.”
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