R. Kelly appears to be sympathetic toward Bill Cosby, who was charged with aggravated indecent assault last month. The singer-songwriter opened up about the ongoing sexual allegations against the 78-year-old comedian in an eye-opening new interview with GQ magazine.
Kelly, 49, was asked to weigh in on Cosby's case after he said that he raised his children like "the good" Bill Cosby.
"Well, my opinion on that is, I don't know what happened. I'm a fan of Bill Cosby's from [The Cosby Show], of course — who's not? — and for me to give my opinion on something that I have no idea if it's true or not, all I can say is that it was a long time ago," he explained. "And when I look on TV and I see the 70-, 80-, 90-year-old ladies talking about what happened when they were 17, 18, or 19, there's something strange about it. That's my opinion. It's just strange."
"It's strange. Strange is strange," he added when asked to clarify what he meant. "I can't explain strange. That's why strange is strange. Because it's something we can't explain."
The recording artist was arrested for sexual misconduct in 2003 and accused of sleeping with underage girls. All charges were dropped in 2004.
"When a person is found not guilty, they're found not guilty. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a murder case, it doesn’t matter what case it is, when they’re found not guilty, they’re not guilty. And I think that a lot of haters out there wanted to see me go down," he said. "Because of my lawyers, to this day I cannot have those kinds of conversations. Being advised by my lawyers in this. Because they could come back to haunt me. Things could come back and they can just restart all over again. And I have to protect myself."
Kelly also revealed that he only settled with his accusers to avoid bad publicity. Looking back, he wishes that he never listened to his lawyers.
"It wasn't like it was a whole ton of people. But the people that did were absolutely lying. Absolutely," he told the mag. "Look, if I break up with a girl, and she don't wanna break up, and I'm R. Kelly, she's gonna be pissed. So pissed that she's gonna go out there, she's gonna say this, she's gonna say that, she's gonna say the other. And if she's really pissed, whoever she said it to is gonna spread the rumor, and if the wrong people get a hold of that rumor, that's gonna come out."
"I'm not, you know, this innocent guy with a halo over his head. No, I love women. Do I like to sleep with underage girls? Absolutely not," he added. "I've said it a million times. But do I have people trying to destroy my career? Absolutely."
