R Kelly's former girlfriend Azriel Clary claims R&B singer abused her physically, sexually, and 'brainwashed' her

R Kelly ’s former girlfriend Azriel Clary has claimed she was physically, mentally, and sexually abused by the embattled R&B singer. In an interview with The Sun, Clary opens up on her relationship with the singer. While having categorically defended Kelly earlier in an interview with CBS This Morning, she admits she had lied on the show, claiming she was “brainwashed and manipulated” by Kelly. [caption id=“attachment_7981991” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Azriel Clary (left) and R Kelly. Images from Twitter[/caption] Now 22, Clary met Kelly when she was 17, and the singer was 53. She recounts that soon after meeting Kelly, she moved in with him in his Chicago residence. Clary says she was among the five other girlfriends he had, and he promised her he would marry her. However, things took an ugly turn when he started forcing her to have group sex with him as well as other men and women several times during the day. If anyone did not abide by Kelly’s rules, he would beat them up or get the women to beat each other up, she alleges. She further went on to say Kelly would get angry if she contacted anyone apart from him. He made her concoct an elaborate lie to tell her friends why she did not want to keep in touch. “Then he beat me with a shoe — a size 12, Nike Air Force One shoe. He beat me all over. It felt like hours, and I was covered in welts all the way from my neck down,” Clary states. She says Kelly later apologised, “and sobbed and cried” for physically assaulting her. She adds he would routinely sexually abuse her. Even after he went to jail in July 2019, Kelly would continue to control her and his other girlfriend Joycelyn Savage. She even says Kelly “blackmails everyone” by making them do “very degrading stuff, whether on film or writing it down.” She alleges many women have not come forward owing to the fear of being sexually blackmailed. Meanwhile, Kelly’s attorney Steve Greenberg has dismissed Clary’s statements as “false.” “It is clear that she now seeks to personally capitalise from their relationship, and the only way to do so is to parrot the false narrative, egged on by her father. Still, Mr Kelly bears only goodwill towards Ms Clary,” Greenberg says in the statement to People.