In her first major interview since leaving R. Kelly, Azriel Clary detailed the physical and mental abuse that she experienced, including being beaten with a shoe.
“I think that there’s hundreds of victims out there,” Clary told the UK Sun. “Robert has live-in girlfriends, he has girlfriend in every city. He has flings in every city. There’s usually three main cities in every state. So three times 50 – that lets you know how many women are probably out there and that’s probably not even hitting it on the nail.”
The 22-year-old Baltimore native, who admitted to lying in a Gayle King interview where she defended Kelly, alleges that he made her have sex with him, and other men and women, “three to five times a day.”
According to Clary, Kelly “blackmails everyone” and makes them do “degrading” things, whether it’s on film, or making them sign incriminating documents. She went on to claim that Kelly made women lie about being molested by family members.
“He even has people on film molesting their younger nieces or younger brothers. I know a lot of women out there are too embarrassed, humiliated, and ashamed to come out because this man had that much power to control them, to make them molest their younger niece or to molest their younger brother.
“Personally had I ever done anything like that, I would be entirely too ashamed to come forward,” Clary noted. “Thankfully, I’ve never been in that situation. But have I seen it done to other women? Yes, I have.”
Kelly’s lawyer has denied Clary’s allegations against his client.
Clary was 17 when she met Kelly while attending one of his concerts. She later became one of his main live-in girlfriends, but the relationship turned abusive. During one incident, Clary claims that he made her get naked and beat her with a shoe for “what felt like hours,” as punishment for talking to her high school friends on the phone. Clary claims Kelly made her send a text message telling her friends that she was cutting them out of her life.
“And then he beat me, he abused me verbally and then he beat me physically,” she recalled. “He beat me with a shoe — a size 12, Nike Air Force One shoe. And he beat me all over, it felt like hours and I was covered in welts all the way from my neck down.”
After the alleged beating, Kelly cried and apologized, and had another girlfriend bathed Clary. She also accused Kelly of sexually abusing victims on a regular basis, typically in retaliation for “embarrassing him in front of other women,” refusing to participate in sexual activities, or for not “performing well” during sex.
“It was easier pleasing him then getting beat every other day,” said Clary.
Kelly is currently jailed and awaiting trail on multiple sexual abuse charges.