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Joycelyn Savage’s Parents Respond to R. Kelly’s Unhinged Interview

Photo: CBS

Following R. Kelly’s explosive interview with Gayle King, Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary, two young women currently living with the singer, defended him and denied accusations that he brainwashed them and has been holding them against their will. Both women said that their parents made those claims under false pretenses, and are out for money — something that Savage’s parents denied in an interview with King.

In a segment that aired on Friday morning, Savage’s parents told King that they never tried to get money from Kelly, and said that they believe their daughter is making those claims because she has been brainwashed. CBS reports that Azriel Clary’s parents also denied ever requesting or receiving money from Kelly.

Savage’s parents also denied ever having met Kelly, despite Kelly’s assertion that Savage’s father brought her to meet him during a concert.

“I didn’t go looking for a Joycelyn Savage,” Kelly said in a portion of his interview that aired Wednesday. “I was doing my show. He brought her and asked a friend of mine to put her on the stage with R. Kelly.”

Her father, Timothy Savage, said that he has never met Kelly in person, and has only spoken to him once on the phone.

“And that one time, you know what he told me? He said, ‘You gonna have to wait to see your daughter. Trust the process,’” he told King.

The Savage family said that they hadn’t spoken to their daughter in two years when she called them after Kelly’s interview aired Wednesday. But Savage’s mother, Jonjelyn, described the conversation to King as a “prison call”: “I can tell that someone is listening to the calls. And she calls with one, with a script. ‘Momma, I told you I’m happy. I told you a million times I’m happy where I am.’”

During Thursday’s CBS broadcast, King said that Kelly’s team has agreed to arrange a meeting between Savage and her family, though it’s unclear when that might happen.

Timothy Savage said during the family’s interview on Friday that Kelly “needs to rot in jail.”

“I’m sorry, that’s just the way I feel,” Timothy said. “That he needs help, but this man has done so many women wrong and he needs to rot in that jail cell. Period.”

The Parents of a Woman Living With R. Kelly Say He’s Lying