R. Kelly’s live-in girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage now insists a Patreon account set up in her name was fake.
Posts on the page promised last month that Joycelyn Savage would make daily posts on the paid platform about the disgraced singer who is facing numerous charges for sexual offenses. It was subsequently alleged he kept Savage locked up “like an animal” and forced her to have two pregnancy terminations at his house. But she has issued a statement in which she vowed to “never betray” the “I Believe I Can Fly” hitmaker or destroy their “special” bond.
Savage said in a video shared to TMZ: “Please do not believe what you see and hear on social media. That is not my Instagram. Someone is impersonating me.
“I just want everyone to know we still support him and we would never betray him. Me and Azriel [Clary] will forever love him.
“I’m not even that kind of girl that would do something like that and betray him. I’ve been through so much with him and we have a bond that is so special that no one can ever break.
“I would never in a million years hurt him like this. I would never do this. It’s just really, really sad that somebody would pretend to be me and put it out in the world and say that I’m a victim, that I am brainwashed, I’m a sex slave – it doesn’t get worse than that.”
Savage insisted she and Kelly’s other girlfriend, Azriel Clary, are continuing to support him throughout all the sexual abuse charges against him.
“I’m just really heartbroken for all of this that’s going on. Me and Azriel still go to the court dates. We still support him, we still see him. I just want him to come home in peace,” she said.
A lawyer acting for the “Ignition” singer urged people to think twice before accepting what they are told as truth.
Attorney Nicole Blank Becker said in a statement: “The stories told about Mr. R. Kelly that were released via Patreon, day after day, were initially believed by the public to be true. Meanwhile, the fictitious stories were placed on a public platform to shape public opinion. By no fault of the public, those stories were believed and even relished in.
“Now that we know that Joycelyn Savage was not the person behind the stories, we know that [the] stories told were complete fabrications.
“Let this be the beginning of a message to the world. Just because someone says something, claims something and … gets money for it, doesn’t mean it’s true. Those false posts and the media frenzy that ensued, are prime examples of how easy it is for the wool to be pulled over the public’s eyes.
“Checking the facts, prior to believing everything you hear is tantamount. A trial is not won or lost by false facts, false facts hurt our belief in the justice system.
“Therefore, it is imperative that we all take a pregnant pause prior to believing what we hear as gospel. The phenomenon of judging people without knowing the truth, believing facts that are not checked and being quick to cast judgment is exactly what has occurred throughout Mr. R. Kelly’s very public fight for his life. We should all strive for justice for all American people. Let this be the moment we all say, ‘a defendant is innocent until proven guilty.’ “
Days after the first posts were made on the Patreon page, the website shut down the account because they couldn’t prove Savage was behind it.
Meanwhile, Savage’s parents have expressed their concern for their daughter’s safety once again.
“We’re saddened and disappointed to learn that Joycelyn Savage has said that she was not the person operating the Patreon account,” they said in a statement through their attorney.
“We deeply desired to hear her story and [hear it] in her own voice outside of the presence of Robert Sylvester Kelly or anyone associated with him. 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.”
