Erykah Badu and Taraji P. Henson have been catching hell for their puzzling support of R. Kelly amid his sexual abuse allegations and the airing of the Surviving R. Kelly docu-series.
While the internet and other celebrities have let them have it, Sparkle, Kelly’s former protégé who spoke out in the Lifetime docu-series had a few choice words following the ladies’ controversial comments.
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“I love Erykah Badu as well, however, I think her wording, I think we have to be very sensitive when it comes to this issue right now,” she said in a TMZ video. “There are girls who still are out here who want to speak up, who won’t speak up because of stuff like this. And because of people like her who are saying, we need to love…look this is far past that. We now need to offer him some tough love,” she said.
Sparkle took issue with Badu’s comments during a Chicago concert in which the Window Seat singer shocked fans and got booed on stage when she suggested that fans offer the accused sexual abuser love and she defended him against the alarming allegations.
“What if one of the people who was assaulted by R Kelly becomes an offender? We gonna crucify them too?” Badu allegedly said, one concertgoer reported.
Another person said she told the crowd to “keep [their] opinion to [themselves]”.
Henson caught heat when the Empire and What Men Want star posted a since deleted Instagram story making comparing the #MuteRKelly campaign to the non-existent #MuteHarveyWeinstein hashtag.
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Henson showed herself typing in both but after finding that the #MuteRKelly results were in the thousands compared to Weinstein’s meager 29 or so results, she posted an emoji and responded “HMMMMM,” apparently confused that there were stark differences in the numbers as if Weinstein wasn’t suffering from backlash.
But the Twitterverse responded that Weinstein is, in fact, facing repercussions for his alleged actions. He was charged last May with rape in the first and third degree by New York prosecutors in cases involving two women. He was indicted after dozens of women came forward, accusing him of sexual harassment and abuse.
Henson was also called out for what appeared to be support for Kelly who was the subject of the damaging docu-series that included a number of testimonies from women, and some claimed they were underaged when they engaged in sex acts with the disgraced musician.
But Henson responded to the backlash to clarify her feelings on the accusations against the singer saying that she believes “R. KELLY IS GUILTY AND WRONG AND SHOULD BE MUTED PERIOD!!!!!”
LET ME BE CLEAR R. KELLY IS GUILTY AND WRONG AND SHOULD BE MUTED PERIOD!!!!! ???
— Taraji P. Henson (@TherealTaraji) January 22, 2019
Check out Sparkle’s on-camera comments below:
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