All language subtitles for Episode 02.Hiding in Plain Sight

I felt like I could
talk to him, you know?

Like he was a normal person,
not a celebrity.

Very welcoming.

Robert treated me very well.

Charismatic. Funny.

Extremely caring.

He's hard not to like.

It was very romantic to me.

Our relationship was beautiful
in the beginning.

But, um...

Didn't know about
the storm on the horizon.

He would break you down.

He would turn around and say,

"I'm the only one
that loves you,

I'm the only one
who cares about you."

I was mentally drained.

Robert feels
as if he's invincible.

"I can't be touched."

And in hindsight, in society,

we kind of made him
feel that way.

He had a voice

that was incredible.

All the labels start calling,

and that's when he took off.

His songs were a huge part

of the soundtrack of our lives.

I heard a lot about Rob

going to kenwood high school.

I always wondered,

what the heck is he doing

hanging around the high school?

He liked high school girls.

They were too young for him.

They were so vulnerable.

I didn't want
to believe that Robert

was messing with Aaliyah

because she was so young.

The door flew open on the bus.

Robert was having sex
with Aaliyah.

A 15-year old girl.

Rob was the big star
of Chicago at that time.

He was all over the radio,
the radio loved him.

He had a lot of hit songs
and they were playing his songs.

Chicago loved r. Kelly.

Tracii McGregor:
There was "vibe,"

and he another big hit,
"honey love."

You had to know
who r. Kelly was.

He was larger than life.

It was kind of like
all of our hopes and dreams

wrapped up into this artist.

Teenage girls definitely wanted
to meet him,

and I had heard lots of stories
about girls who did.

This is really
about an adult man who is using

the power of his fame
and wealth and whatever

to systematically degrade
little black girls.

When you get type of power,

you kind of lose
perspective of reality.

Robert dated a lot of women
from a lot of different cities.

We-we'd fly 'em in,
we'd fly 'em out.

Robert likes younger women.

You have people
who have fantasies

about different things.

I like older women.

Go figure, you know?

But that's just a preference.

It's a preference.
Everyone has preferences.

So, what is the big deal?

What's the big issue
with my brother?

When I went down to the
studio, I could see what kind

of lifestyle Rob was living and
what was going on in his life.

And it didn't look good to me.

There was a bedroom
in the main room of the studio.

There was girls everywhere.

There was a young girl sitting,
and she had to be, I don't--

I haven't checked her ID,
I don't know,

but anywhere between 15 to 17
to 18-- she was a teenager.

She was young.

You can tell what's young.

I don't know
if they were together.

When I went to another room,
there was a girl in that room.

With the lights out. Waiting.

There was another girl
in this lounge, over there.

Lights out, waiting.

And I'm telling Reed,
my business partner,

"what the hell is going on?"

Robert...

He's hard not to like.

It's hard not to like him.

I was at a party at his house,
and I didn't drink,

but his friend gave me
some alcohol.

So, I-I was really, like, hazy,

and I remember
he took me up to the room.

It was just a blur.

He went back to the party
and I just kind of passed out.

It was my first
sexual experience,

and I didn't think
it would be that way.

Sex with him felt not natural.

Visiting him,
it was mainly about sex.

I felt like a sex object.

You know, he would just say,

"I still want to, um,
help you with your career."

Music was my joy.

So I felt like
my dreams are gonna come true.

I just kind of, like,
listened to him

and said okay, you know,
and stayed

there by myself.

He would have people follow me

because he told me as much,

"if you leave this hotel room
or go anywhere,

"I have my boys following you,

and I know everything
that you're doing."

So I was very fearful.

Wouldn't hear
from him for days,

and then he would come back,
and it was just

sex and abu-- and-and...

Mental and physical abuse.

And here we have r. Kelly,

who's saying, "I will help
you create a career."

But he never intended
to do that.

And, here again, women trying
to move up in good faith.

"I am a singer, I will listen
to you. I will..."

And he's just like,

"I'm just gonna take you
and take your body."

A lot of the young women

who became involved with him,

a lot of them started
from the same place

that most people
in the black community are,

of, "I've heard those rumors,

"but I don't believe
that to be true.

"I'm an aspiring star,
I'm not a gold digger.

"I'm not fast. I'm not this,
that, or the other.

I'm introduced to him or I get
an opportunity to meet him."

Um, and he's a charming,
rich, famous person

who has the ability
to fly you around the world

or, you know, buy you whatever
you want or do whatever.

I mean, that's, that's
a lot of temptation

for somebody
so young and naive.

The first time
he was physically abusive,

I was 17 and I-I said hello to
someone that I shouldn't have,

or I was looking at someone

that I shouldn't have been
looking at.

You know,
so he didn't like that.

He took me outside

and smacked me and said, like,

"you can-- you're only supposed
to look at me."

And I don't understand this.

I just...

I just cried and said okay.

And then I did that
going forward

'cause I didn't want to get--

I didn't want to anger him
or get hit.

Anybody
can be a victim of abuse.

However,
there are certain contexts

and certain characteristics that
can make you more vulnerable.

Like inequal power dynamics.

Girls can go into a situation

really wanting something...

...and when somebody feels
that they can

hold that something
over her head,

"if you just do this with me,"

and the behavior and the
exploitation can escalate.

When did you
find out that he was married?

Maybe a year
after they were married.

I never knew.
Never said anything.

My best friend said
she heard it on the radio.

And...

I was, like, in shock.

We never spoke of the marriag.

He never told me
about the marriage.

There were quite
a few women, but there are only

a couple of women in his life

that-that I know of
that he really loved.

Obviously,
Aaliyah and my sister,

Andrea Lee, at the time,
now Kelly.

I was shocked
that Robert married her.

It just looked like to me
that they weren't compatible.

She just seemed
different than,

what he was, what
he was accustomed to...

Having.

My name is Andrea Kelly.

Born and raised
in the windy city.

My family says that I danced
before I walked.

Dance is the reason
why I met Robert.

A good friend of mine,
Larry, convinced me

to go to an audition.

I'm like, "Larry, I'm not going
to an audition.

First of all,
who the hell is r. Kelly?"

'Cause I'd never heard of him
at that point.

He's like, "no,
you should come, it's dope.

"He's got this new song out
called 'sex me.'

he's going on tour,
he's looking for dancers."

She killed it.

She was the best
out of 400 girls.

I mean, drea's probably one of
the best dancers in the world.

This lady says,

"you got the job.

He loved you."

And that's how
our worlds collide.

He was a go-getter,
and that was amazing

to me, to see somebody who,
after sharing

that he didn't read
or wr-write well.

But you could create
these amazing songs.

I was mesmerized.

There is a part of me
that's like,

"wow, he is really
a musical genius."

I started to see a more gentle

or, i-I'd rather say,
vulnerable side.

He started to get to the point
where he would ask me

to teach him how to read.

Being able to share
the loss of his mom...

With me,

it was like, 100% wall down.

Down to the studs.

The nurturer that I am,
you're thinking,

"okay, I'm not gonna be
that person in his life

"that turns a blind eye.

"I'm not gonna be
that person in his life

"that his story
is falling on deaf ears.

"I'm gonna be
that person in his life

that's gonna love him
through it."

And it was actually beautiful
in the beginning.

But, um...

Didn't know about the storm
on the horizon.

Someone like r. Kelly would use

their vulnerability to make
the victim comfortable.

And so, the victim
would then feel,

"okay, well, they've shared this
very private moment with me."

And that's how you build trust.

Vulnerability, um,
builds trust in that regard.

For many girls and women,
it starts as, um, caring.

Feeling cared for.
Feeling paid attention to.

Um, and then getting lulled
into, over time,

more constricting
and more abusive behavior.

I saw another side of him.

The dark side.

He would say,
"you have to call me daddy."

I wasn't free to walk around.

If I wanted to use the restroom,
I'd have to ask him.

If I was hungry,
I have to ask him.

He came up once

and grabbed me by my arm
in the room

and dragged me down the hallway

because I talked back to him.

I was kicking and screaming
and crying.

He told me to perform

sexual acts while his friends
were in the back seat

and, like, humiliated me
in front of everyone.

It was like he owned me.

R. Kelly was definitely part
of this milieu

that also involved the Jacksons.

Both Michael and Janet,
who were,

connecting r & b
to the mainstream.

Robert had actually did

a remake on Janet,
and when-when it did so well,

that Mike liked it,

and Mike wanted
to work with Robert.

Robert was like, he was
really thrilled, you know,

to get a chance to produce
Michael Jackson.

That was like
a turn of his career.

He let me hear--
he said, "who's this?"

I listened to the song, I said,

"that's easy.
That's Michael Jackson."

"Come on, Bruce, man.

You don't even know
your brother's own voice?"

I said, "that's you?"

He sang the song himself, right,
and let Mike hear them.

And when Michael Jackson
heard it, Michael said,

"my god, he sounds just like me."

He just said
that he had something, like,

really special
that he had been working on.

At this time, I'm a senior
in high school, and...

I found out that I was pregnant.

And a few days later,
I had a miscarriage.

When he wrote it,
he was thinking of me.

So then he played it

and he called the song
"you are not alone."

R. Writes him a really...

Great song about someone, um,

dealing with the idea
of isolation,

which is a big theme
in Michael's music.

In hindsight,
all of his songs,

they're real stories.

They're about different people
during those times

in different situations
that were occurring with him.

So, "your body's callin',"
things like that.

"Sex me."

Those are real stories.

"Age ain't nothing but
a number." He meant that.

A perpetrator might

isolate an individual.

It's easier
for a perpetrator to abuse

when that individual
doesn't have resources.

Me and my brothers,

we all have our ways
with our girls.

We're very jealous guys.

We don't want our girls doing
certain things. You...

Y-You're not gonna see our girls

talking too much to people,
and all this.

That's-that's just
the way we are.

Robert has a lot
of rules for people,

but he doesn't
have many for himself.

Um, I think he wants
to be perceived

as the ultimate Alpha male,

when he's really the runt
of the litter.

There was a rule,
being on tour with him.

"The dancers do not communicate
with my background singers,

my band don't communicate
with my dancers."

He-he really ran it
like a dictatorship.

Like, when we would
walk in as dancers,

we walked in
in a single-file line.

We did not get to communicate

with the other artists
in the venue.

We had to stay
in our dressing rooms

until it was time for you
to hit the stage.

My parents were trying to get
a hold of me and they couldn't.

I did not know that my cell
phone number was being changed.

And I believe

he strategically did it so that
he could have all this going on,

and if I keep you locked away
and keep you isolated,

you don't get
to see this other side.

We used to talk with Andrea

and the other dancers and stuff
and have fun.

But after they got married,
no more of that.

Just-- you know,
she-- it was like,

she wouldn't even speak to US.

And it was hard to know
if we could speak to her.

Robert chartered a plane
with a banner

that said,
"Andrea, will you marry me?"

And then the dude dropped down
in a parachute with a ring.

And she said yeah.

So it was a secret ceremony.

He was really sneaky.

And I would have loved
for his brothers

to be there with him.

For memories, if nothing else.

Fame is one thing.

You know,
but when you start to lose

certain life's precious moments
because of fame,

I think I'd do without it.

I felt bad.

I could see that she wanted

her people there, you know?

She wanted her mom there,
she wanted her dad there.

But that's Robert, though.

My wedding

was a surprise wedding.

I did not know
I was getting married.

We went to Colorado,
and I remember

coming into the hotel room,
and there was violinists.

There's a cello player.

He had the cake, he had
the food, he had everything,

like he went over the top.

Like, Robert, what if I wanted
to do it in a church?

What if I wanted to wear
a wedding dress?

I don't think
he even understands

that you've now crossed
that line from being generous

to being controlling.

Tell me
about what happened in the end.

What was the final straw?

I caught mononucleosis from him.

And my mono turned
into guillain-barr?,

where my whole body was
completely paralyzed,

and I almost didn't make it.

He sent my mother
a thousand-dollar check.

I was in icu for two,
two and a half weeks.

I almost died.
He was nowhere to be found.

My best friend was very angry

and said that I should
stop seeing him.

"You're just going there,

like, you're like a prostitute,
really."

That hurt...
But it was the truth.

All these things that I didn't
want to be, I became.

He stole my life from me.

Being abused like this...

And I don't think
he understands,

girls that are young,
how impressionable we are

and how traumatic
these experiences are.

They change you forever.

I decided to walk away.

I didn't want to be
a victim anymore.

You fall in love
with the charmer.

You fall in love
with his brokenness.

And then, slowly, he lets
the other one creep in.

He's a control freak.

Having to call him daddy.

There should not
be repercussions

if I don't call you daddy.

"I can control what you do,
who you do it with,

"how long you do it,
where you go,

what you wear, when you eat,
when you sleep."

I honestly believe

that he has a god complex.

There's a concept
we call learned helplessness

that allows people to feel
like "there's nothing I can do

to change this situation."

The more sensationalized idea
of sexual abuse,

if someone's tied to a bed
or hidden in a closet.

The chains and the handcuffs
that we see

are all psychological.

And they're learned
from a perpetrator

who's very skillful
at manipulating an individual

to do what he or she wants.

For example,

often men will put out
feelers out there.

"Put out a feeler to see
who's willing to allow me

to cross this boundary."

So, for example, one might be,
um, "call me daddy."

Something simple like that.
"Call me daddy."

Okay, that's not
the end of the world.

It's not gonna cause you
to psychologically be stuck,

but that's step one.

Step two, "wear these types
of clothes around me."

Step three,

"you can't move around the house
unless I say so."

So there's no real
grandiose manipulation,

it comes in a slow,
step-by-step process.

And once you're in,

it's really hard to get out.

When I began
working with r. Kelly,

I did background vocals.

I was hanging out
with Robert at his crib.

You know, the fellas were
around, and I was the only girl.

We were watching
the Chicago Bulls playoff game.

And I kept hearing this knock.

And I'm just like, "okay."

Robert hasn't moved.

He's focused on the TV.

Knock again.
And I'm just like,

"do you hear that knock?"
I'm like,

"somebody's knocking, Robert."

And he leans back
and he say, "yeah."

And she peeks out the door.

His wife drea.

And I was like,
"hell no," to myself.

She wanted to come down

to grab a bite to eat.
She asked him,

"is it okay if I come down
to grab some food?"

And he was like,
"yeah, come on."

And I was just like,
"wow. Never could be me."

Did he lock you up?

'Cause we've heard stories
where you were locked up.

Is that true?

There are certain things

that Robert has done
to me that,

that I'm not willing
to talk about today because...

The pain, the disbelief, still.

And the darkness of it.

Men or women,
boys or girls stay

in victimized situations

due to something we call
the "cycle of abuse."

The-the first cycle of abuse
is called

the "honeymoon phase,"
where everything's great,

everything's crimson and clover.

I give you everything you need.
I love you.

I give you the sexual attention,
the emotional attention,

the financial attention.

And then you start walking
on eggshells.

Little things, like, if you
would do something wrong,

instead of saying,
"hey, do it this way..."

"Are you that stupid?"
And you're like,

"why do I have to be stupid?

"Just because
I don't know how to do it,

"it doesn't mean I'm stupid,

"it just means that I haven't
mastered it yet.

I don't know how to do it."

Down to the way he wanted
his pancakes made,

with the crispy edges.

If they weren't crisp enough,...

"You made it wrong."

It would be the smallest things
that you think

would not make the average
person feel inadequate.

But you hear it enough,
and you start thinking,

"okay, so, I'm not smart enough.
I don't make the pancakes right.

The milk was too cold."

Then one time I make the milk
too cold.

"It shouldn't have
been this cold..."

So you're just always
on eggshells.

After the marriage, though,

she got real quiet.

She was really quiet.

And I think that was how
Robert wanted it, you know.

Girls and women
are relational in nature,

which means that they develop
and they thrive

in connection with other people.

If an individual wants to come
in and be that most important

relationship in her life,

then slowly, over time,
he can use that position

to guide her behavior.

So you'll start
not doing things

because
"I don't want to irritate him.

This is a really
important relationship."

It's a slow process
of isolation,

of tailoring this person
to what you want her to be

and how you want her to act.

You don't even believe
in your own sense of judgment

after a while.

And you're trying
to figure out:

How do I get him back
to the good space?

Okay, I'll take
responsibility for--

I'll just say it's my fault.
I'll say yes to whatever it is.

I'll apologize, 'cause if I can
just get him back

to the good guy, the one
that I fell in love with,

then I'm in a good space.

How do I stop it?
How do I get you back?

How do I get you back
to the guy...

That asked me to help him
to read?

When I began working
with Robert,

I thought he was a genius.

I definitely considered him
as a mentor.

He also became family to me.

But he's-he's a controlling
person. Yeah.

Sparkle has been around
from the beginning.

From day one.

She's his original
background vocalist.

I don't know if you've ever
heard her sing,

but she's got an amazing voice.

The octave range is, like, five.

And she would actually be
in the studio for hours.

Robert and I spent a great
amount of time together.

The process of working
on my debut album was crazy.

? All by myself ?

? Taking little man
to church... ?

The concept for "be careful"
came from controlling Robert.

He thought of the concept
for the song,

and he wanted it to now be a
duet instead of just me singing.

? Two years ago ?

? Didn't know you had
male friends ?

? Wait a minute. ?

He... thought of everything.

He thought of the video.

He thought of the clothing.

He's a visionary,

so he thinks of the steps.

Where do we go now?
And how do you want me to walk?

And where do I want to see you
and me driving down the street?

And how do I flip my hair?

He has all that down.

So, yeah, that's him.

Robert didn't allow pretty much
anyone to speak to me.

I'm just walking around,
"hey, everybody, hey!"

And then I'm just like,

"what's going on? Why aren't
these people speaking back?"

Come to find out,
they couldn't speak to me.

He wouldn't let them.

That's not me 'cause I'm gonna
speak to everybody and anybody

and whoever I want to speak to.

So, when I learned that,

I would go out of my way
to speak to people

just to tick him off,
because I'm just like,

"look, you can't tell me
what I can

"and cannot do.
I'm not that girl.

I'm not that chick.
You can't stifle me."

But I didn't know that...

A bomb was coming.

Robert, he loves basketball.

I-I think he think
he's, Michael Jordan.

We used to go to Michael's
house every weekend.

Play basketball against him
and his sons.

He was thrilled about

space jam project.

They actually sent
Robert footage

of Mike doing basketball moves
slow-- in slow motion.

He used to sit up and watch
this footage and say,

"wow. Look at him.
He just soars."

"He just flies."

He just came out with it.

? I believe I can
touch the sky. ?

And just started singing it.

"Hey, that's it,
that's it, that's it!"

? I believe I can fly ?

? I believe I can
touch the sky. ?

"I believe I can fly"
is a powerful song,

and a lot of people have sung it
at talent shows,

it's one of those songs
that inspired a lot of people.

It was everywhere.
Kindergarten graduations...

? I believe I can fly. ?

High school graduations.

? I believe
I can touch the sky. ?

And in churches.
-? Think about it ?

? Every night and day. ?

It was just massive.

It was a huge, huge song.

It was a moment of redemption
in some people's eyes and ears.

People were amazed

that this guy who was very
pornographic in other contexts

could walk in
and do something spiritual.

Religious.

It was genius.

I wonder, considering that

the most famous thing
that r. Kelly has ever done

was "I believe I can fly,"

did that, on some level, make
people feel comfortable with him

as somebody who was
an entertainer for children?

Or somebody who was a good gu?

All these pop stars
pick their titles, right?

"I'm the pied Piper of r & b."

The pied Piper was a, you know,
a children's character

who played a flute, I believe,
and children would follow him

down the road to
whatever he was leading them.

So, he literally pitched
a metaphor

for seducing
young children with music.

If you grew up in Chicago,

y-you've heard about r. Kelly.

My son used to like space jam,
so I had to watch

"I believe I can fly,"
the opening to space jam,

about a hundred times
when my son was two years old.

Everything he put out at
this point now was just a hit.

And not just
on the r & b charts.

Like, he was now
a bona fide pop artist.

He won three grammys that year.

And, boy, did his head
blow up big at that point.

He became
untouchable in his mind.

R. Kelly was one of those people
hiding in plain sight.

And sometimes we, as a society,
are so in denial

of people that we admire,
that we don't want to see it.

My name is Lisa Van Allen.

I was 17 years old
when I met Rob.

A friend of mine--

his girlfriend was going
to a video shoot.

She was an aspiring singer,

and he didn't want her
to go by herself,

so he asked me if I could go
with her to the video shoot.

It was for "home alone"
with him and Keith Murray.

Everyone was dancing,
it was pretty upbeat.

At some point, I guess he saw
me, and he had his cousin

come over to me and say,
"Rob wants to talk to you."

You know,
I was kind of surprised

when I actually ended up
meeting him

'cause I-I just thought
I'd be the last one

he would try to talk to
because I was probably

the youngest one there.

Rob was sitting near the pool,

and he was being really,
really nice, and

he asked me how old I was,
and I told him I was 17.

And he asked me, "will your
mother let you come to Chicago?"

I knew he was at least 31,
so I thought,

when I said 17, that he'd be
like-- you know, like,

that was gonna be
the deal breaker.

But, um, it wasn't.

Young girls are impressionable.

Like, he's r. Kelly.

"Now, look who I get.

Look who is showing me
interest."

He's charismatic, funny.

And he's an all-around nice guy.

But Robert
is a mass manipulator.

Like, everybody knows it now.

They didn't know it back then.

I had heard
about Rob's reputation,

about him dating Aaliyah,

but I didn't assume
that he liked younger girls.

I just thought, at that moment,

I just thought he liked me.

He actually had me go
on the bus, his tour bus.

He wanted me to take off the
little dressy clothes I had on.

It went into him suggesting

sexual acts like oral and sex.

I felt like I shouldn't have
done that so fast,

but at the same time,
I didn't want to tell him no,

I guess, because I was young.

Pretty much, and I
just didn't want to tell him no.

I thought he might be upset
or, you know, not like me

'cause I-I chose not to do it.

I pretty much stayed on the bus
in his t-shirt,

and in between scenes, he would
come back and forth on the bus

until he finished shooting.

We exchanged phone numbers,
and he told me

to go straight to the car
and go straight home.

When I first introduced my niece

to Robert, it was
at 12 years old.

I asked my sister
and my brother-in-law

to bring her down
to the studio to meet him.

She was a rapper.

She was a-a-a

dope rapper, too, like,

she was bow wow status

when bow wow was
the back then.

She was that status.

I wanted

him to do what he was doing
for me for her

because, like, I saw that
hunger, I saw that drive.

I saw that...

Wanting to be bigger than life,
if you will,

'cause she was that,
she was totally that.

And he saw it, too.

Initially, my niece

would come down
to the studio with me

'cause she wanted to see
the ins and outs

of-of how I was working and just
be around the vibe of it all.

She would sit on the couch.

I would go in the booth
and do my thing

and I wouldn't take
my eyes off her.

There were a couple times
that I came into the studio

while I was still,
um, under Rockland,

that my niece would be
in the studio room.

And I would walk in like,
"what you doing here?"

"Who's here with you?"

And she's like,
"I got dropped off.

"Robert's having
a Christmas party

"or some type of party and
there's gonna be a lot of kids,

"so we're all gonna stay,

you know, at his house and,
you know, have games and..."

So then I was just like, "okay."

I was pissed when I saw her

in the studio by herself.

My parents were strict.

We couldn't stay over
or be around nobody's house.

We couldn't spend the night at
nobody's house if they had boys.

You're just with Robert
being supervised? Okay.

I thought I left my niece
in good hands.

But think of a grown man

hanging out with young girls.

It just felt like...

I just shouldn't have
introduced them.

Something ain't right.

I actually waited about a month
before I called him.

He was pretty blunt.
"When can you get to Chicago?"

I told my mother the truth

about where I wanted to go
and who I was going to see.

I think she knew that she really
couldn't keep me from going

because I already had made
my mind up that I was going.

It just went
from the first visit,

me going back home,

the second visit,

to pretty much where
I just didn't end up leaving.

I just would stay.

In the beginning, sex happened
at the studio a lot.

In the studio he had bedrooms,

so you didn't really
have to go anywhere.

It was pretty exciting
for a young girl.

Chicago trax was
a really, really big place.

There's a bedroom in the middle
of studio a, the big room,

where Rob had built
a big queen-sized bed,

and, you know, I'm like, "wow"

I thought that was
quite strange.

I felt special.

I actually thought
that I was his girlfriend.

You know, I was li-living
up there at that point.

We were together
all the time, you know.

I had no reason to question
that we weren't.

Life in the studio,

it was kind of boring
for the most part.

You really couldn't have much
interaction other than...

Well, I couldn't have
much interaction

with anyone other than Robert.

At that time I didn't know
what a runner was,

but, um, later on, I realized
it was just, you know,

the people that work at the
studio, and they pretty much,

pretty much, like, run errands.

My mom would, um,
call the studio.

The runners would actually let

Robert know that
I had a phone call,

and then he would
let them know to,

like, transfer the call to me.

I do know that there were times

where,
when she would get through,

and she'd be upset and saying
she couldn't contact me

and things like that.

So it very well could've been
times where she was calling

and they weren't allowed
to put me through.

One time,

one of his friends
came to the studio

and he's speaking to everyone,

and just a normal reaction,
you speak back.

Um, Rob would get upset

and say, "you're not supposed
to speak to them.

"You don't speak to anybody.
You just look straight forward.

If they speak to you,
you don't say anything."

Pretty early on,

he kind of introduced you
to everything that he was into.

It was instructed to call him
daddy during sex,

but it went from that to pretty
much all time, he'd be daddy.

The first time Robert
had me do a sexual act

with him and another female,
he actually told me

it was going to be
his first time

and he wanted to do it with me.

He would say things like, um,

"well, you know, if you love me,
you won't try to change me."

You know, "if you love me,
you'll accept me how I am."

You know, "if you love me,
you'll do these things for me."

So those would be the little
pep talks he would give me.

Robert would film

our sex acts sometimes.

He would never ask me if, um,
it was okay to be filmed,

but he never hid the camera

or anything like that.

Once we did the threesome,
it became more frequent.

Then he started introducing me
to other young women.

The time that sticks out
the most in my head.

We had went to

an awards show,
and I had a great day.

He had, had me buy
this pretty gown.

It was just me and him.
It made me feel special.

When we got back to the house...

...this young girl
was there, and, um,

he called her down.

He told me that she was 16
and she was a neighbor.

The way he had put it
was kind of like,

he was trying
something different.

You know, like, new, you know,
with including her.

We all went into the, gym,

and he had the space jam stuff
all on the wall.

And he pulled a-a futon mattress
out of one of the rooms.

And he brought it out there

and laid it out.

He pulled out his camera
and his tripod,

and, I started crying

when we started,
to have sex.

I didn't want to do it,

and, he got upset.

And he was like, um,
"what am I gonna do with this?"

He's like, "I can't watch this
with you on here crying."

He didn't care
that I was crying;

he was upset because he couldn't
watch it because I was crying.

He's, coaching US
through the whole thing.

He's telling me,
"Lee-Lee, lay down."

He's having US perform oral
on each other.

He starts to have,
intercourse with both of US.

She seemed to be, like,
know how things went

without him really telling her
much of anything.

He was more instructing me,
you know.

And, um, I kind of felt like

they've been there before,
doing this.

And once, um, everything's done,

she gets up
and goes into the bathroom

and, she stays there
until we're gone.

But that wasn't the only place

that we had sex
with the young girl.

We did also in
one of his trailers

for one of his video shoots.

The other time was
in the Colorado room,

which is the wood room
in the basement.

He did tape US there as well.

It took a while for me

to get to that point
where I really realized,

it wasn't just me that was young
that he liked.

It wasn't a mistake
with Aaliyah.

It took a while for me

to just really think to myself
and figure out,

"you know what? This man
really has a problem."

Like, it's bigger than me
and Aaliyah. It's a problem.

There are two ways
that an artist

can hide in plain sight.

One is to veil

your bad behavior

in good works, good music.

Music that is uplifting
and transcendent.

These are the artists who,
when we hear that they,

say, were involved in

domestic violence, for example,

or, predatory behavior,

we're horrified,
we can't believe it.

R. Kelly did a little of that

with, his
inspirational songs and his

kind of gospel side.

The other way to hide
in plain sight

is to create outrageous art.

Art in which you are embodying
the very stereotype,

that your private life

seems to fulfill.

R. Kelly did this

with extremely obscene songs

about explicit sex acts

that also used humor
and outrageous metaphors.

R. Kelly also did this
in his performances,

which were increasingly
pornographic.

So r. Kelly created
and occupied

a position of outrageousness

that kind of masked everything

that was happening
behind the scenes.

We'd be in the studio,

and he'd have her parents
in the studio

and he would actually, um,
pretend as if

he cared that she was young.

It surprised me
because I knew that he was

having sex with her,
but he would put up this front

for her parents.

He knows that he's sleeping
with this young girl.

Him and I both were actually

having sex with her.

But I didn't know at the time

that she was actually 14.

I mean, I didn't know
that side of him.

You know, lying

to her parents
to get them to trust,

him with their child.

Two years later, we were headd

to one of his video shoots,
and he actually had

other females
that he was cool with

or had a sexual
relationship with.

The only time he would want you
to communicate with them

would be during the sexual act.
Other than that,

you don't speak to each other.

You act like
each other don't exist,

but I sparked up a conversation,

even though
I wasn't supposed to.

She had said something
about getting a car.

And I asked her--
she said when she turns 16

she's gonna get a car.
And I was-- I asked her,

"aren't you already 16?
Weren't you already 16?"

And she said, "no, no, I'm 15.

I'm about to be 16."

It rang a bell in my head
at that moment.

It made me feel,

like, sick to my stomach.

It made me feel disgusted

'cause all of the
sexual encounters

were before I found out
she was 14.

It still haunts me, you know?

It shouldn't have happened.

I should have never
introduced her to him.

Like, how dare you?

How dare you?