R. Kelly's Girlfriend Claims Her Parents Told Her to Lie About Her Age When She First Met the Singer

The R&B singer's two girlfriends both say they love the singer.

Azriel Clary and Joycelyn Savage are speaking out about their relationship with R. Kelly

Despite the sexual abuse allegations against the 52-year-old singer -- which have had renewed attention following the recent release of Lifetime's Surviving R. Kelly docuseries -- both women live with Kelly in Chicago, consider themselves his girlfriends and say that they are in love with him. Their parents, meanwhile, claim that their daughters have been brainwashed by him and are part of an alleged sex cult. Kelly has repeatedly denied all accusations.

Kelly previously claimed that both sets of parents "handed" their daughters over to him. The R&B singer said he met Savage when her father brought the the 19-year-old to one of his concerts. As for Clary, Kelly said they met at one of his concerts when she was 17.

In an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning, which came after her sit-down with the R&B singer, 21-year-old Clary claimed that her parents encouraged her to pretend to be older when she first met Kelly.

"When I first met Robert my parents told me to lie about my age," Clary alleged. "So, when I met him, he thought that I was 18. On top of that, 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... They said [it was] 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." 

Clary also denied that she had sex with Kelly when she was 17 -- something Kelly also said he "absolutely" did not do, "although her parents wanted me to" -- and claimed that her parents are speaking out against Kelly for financial gain.

"I'm crying because you guys don't know the truth. You guys are believe some f**king facade that our parents are saying," Clary said through tears. "This is all f**king lies for money and if you can't see that you're ignorant and you're stupid as f**k because you want to be. All because that's the world we live in. Negativity sells. Gossip is what sells. Rumors are what sell."

"We're not here to talk about decades," Clary added of past abuse allegations against Kelly. "We're here to talk about what our parents are doing right now. And what they're doing right now is all for money."

Clary -- who said that her parents have visited her in Chicago and "know that I've been well taken care of" -- saw her father early this week and refused to look him in the eye because, she claimed, "he's a manipulative liar."

"He's the manipulator. He's very manipulative. So, he's the one you need to watch out for," Clary said. "My dad and my mom, they're starting to send threats to both me and him. They said, 'Oh I'll put all your naked pictures all over the world. I'm going to ruin you. I'm going to ruin him. If he doesn't send $20,000 to this bank account by Monday I'm going to put everything out there and then $10,000 after that.' You're trying to solicit me like I'm some f**king h*. I'm not. I'm your child."

Clary also denied claims that she wanted to be a singer, saying it was "another lie" from her parents.

"Before I even met R. Kelly, I told my parents I did not want to sing," she said. "My parents made singing like a job for me. It's not something I wanted to do. Not only that, I even tried to kill myself because I did not want to sing, as a cry out for help to tell them, 'This is not what I want to do with my life. This is not how I want to spend my life.'"

Ahead of their CBS This Morning interview, Clary's parents, Alice and Angelo Clary, sent out a statement via their attorney, Michael Avenatti. The Clarys alleged that their daughter has "suffered severe mental abuse" and called Kelly a "liar, a manipulator and sociopath."

"We love our daughter Azriel very much and we miss her," the statement read. "Azriel has suffered severe mental abuse at the hands of R. Kelly for years. She is also likely suffering from symptoms similar to those found with Stockholm Syndrome. R. Kelly is a liar, a manipulator and sociopath who must be brought to justice for his decades of sexual assault on underage girls. All of these victims and their parents cannot be lying."

Savage, 23, agreed with Clary, claiming that "everything that she's saying is true."

"Our parents are basically out here just to get money. Both our parents are basically out here trying to get money and scam because they didn't agree on what happened... and they're just very upset," Savage said.

In an audio recording obtained by ET on Wednesday, Savage told her parents that she is not being held hostage.

"I have told you guys a million, million times that I am OK where I am and I'm happy, so I just really want to let you know that," Savage says in the recording. "...You just need to stop it. Like I said millions of times mom, I'm not held hostage."

Savage's phone call to her parents came less than one hour after they held a press conference, where their attorney, Gerald A. Griggs, responded to statements that Kelly had made.

"Mr. Kelly stated on Gayle King's show that Mr. Timothy Savage provided his daughter on stage at a concert that Mr. Kelly was performing at,” Griggs said. “That is absolutely not true.”

“[Kelly] also indicated that these parents came forward after the money stopped, I can stay here unequivocally that at no point have the Savages requested any money from Mr. Robert Sylvester Kelly,” he added.

Savage's father called Kelly's interview "emotionally disturbing," while her mother said that after Kelly's highly emotional interview, she can only "imagine what he does behind closed doors."

As for Kelly's relationship with the two women, Clary said that she, Savage and Kelly "are all a family together."

"We have our moments when we sit and watch movies all together. We go to amusement parks all together," she said. "... I would never share with no one what I do in or outside of the bedroom... There are people all over the world who have multiple girlfriends. It's no different."

In Kelly's interview, he said that both Clary and Savage are "almost like they're my girlfriends." 

"It's like, you know, we have a relationship. It's real," he said. "And I know guys, I've known guys all my life that have five or six women, OK? So don't go there on me, OK? Because that's the truth."

When King questioned Kelly about the age difference between him and the women, Kelly pointed out that they were both over the age of 18.

"I don't look at much younger than me, I just look at legal," he noted. "I just look at, you're you, I'm me. Now I don't know if you're married. I don't know. I don't know if you had a relationship. I don't know. But one might be older than the other, one might be younger than the other, OK? So I just look at legal, OK? There are older men that like younger women. There are younger women that like older men.... I'm an older man that loves all women."

On Wednesday, Kelly returned to jail for unpaid child support in the amount of $161,663. Kelly’s publicist told ET that the singer offered to pay $50,000 to $60,000 in court and set up a payment plan, but the judge denied the offer, something that "disappointed" Kelly. 

That same day, Detroit Police confirmed that they're investigating Kelly for allegedly having intercourse with a teenage girl almost two decades ago. 

Additionally on Wednesday, CBS announced that it will air The Gayle King Interview with R. Kelly, a one-hour special with more of King's interviews with Kelly, Clary and Savage. The special will air on the network Friday, March 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

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