Music artist R. Kelly (C) arrives at the Circuit Court of Cook County, Domestic Relations Division on March 6, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by JOSHUA LOTT / AFP/Getty Images.
R. Kelly was released from jail on Saturday after someone paid the $161,000 in back child support, according to Cook County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Sophia Ansari. It's not known who paid the amount, but it was posted sometime Saturday morning. Last week, Kelly was released on $100,000 bond after being taken into custody on 10 charges of criminal sexual assault when a Chicago business owner posted the singer's bail. He was ordered back into custody on Wednesday by a judge due to him owing $161,000 in unpaid child support to ex-wife Andrea Kelly. Reportedly, he was told last month that failure to pay the amount would result in being sent to jail.
R. Kelly's attorney Stephen Greenberg and publicist Darryll Johnson have both been forthcoming about the singer's finances, calling them a "mess" when he was unable to post bail the first time or pay the entire amount in owed child support after Wednesday's hearing. In the second part of his CBS This Morning recent interview with Gayle King, Kelly claims "people have been stealing" his money and that negative press has prevented him from being able to pay the amount owed. “How can I pay child support?" he asked. "How? If my ex-wife is destroying my name and I can't work? How can I work, how can I get paid, how can I take care of my kids?”
Kelly has also continued to deny wrongdoing, maintaining that accusers were lying for personal gain. “You can start a rumor on a guy like me or a celebrity just like that,” Kelly told King in the interview's first aired portion. “All you have to do is push a button on your phone and say so and so did this to me, R. Kelly did this to me, and if you get any traction from that, if you’re able to write a book from that, if you’re able to get a reality show… then any girl that I had a relationship in the past that it just didn’t work out, she can come and say the same exact thing.” Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary, who both claim to be in a romantic relationship with Kelly, did their own interview with King defending the singer.
