R. Kelly pays $62K in back child support for the last three months

Singer will place the next three months of payment in an escrow account

R. Kelly avoided jail time on Wednesday by paying up to $62,000 in back child support (for March, April and May) to his ex-wife Andrea Kelly.

Brianna Rhodes

May 8, 2019

R. Kelly thegrio.com — R. Kelly appears at a hearing before Judge Lawrence Flood at Leighton Criminal Court Building May 7, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by E. Jason Wambsgans-Pool/Getty Images)

R. Kelly avoided jail time on Wednesday by paying up to $62,000 in back child support (for March, April and May) to his ex-wife Andrea Kelly.

According to TMZ, Kelly, 52, made the payment during a child support court hearing at Daley Center in Chicago, covering money owed from March, April and May.

PEOPLE reports that the current support agreement enforces that the disgraced singer pay Andrea $20,000 for their 21-year-old daughter Joann, who goes by Buku Abi, and their sons Jay and Robert, Jr.

The artist was also informed that he still owes his ex-wife of 13 years $32,000 in interest during the hearing. Andrea requested extra child support to cover Buku Abi’s secondary education expenses as well.

Darrell Johnson, Kelly’s Crisis Manager, informed TMZ that after paying the principal balance of the child support, Kelly has to put payments for June, July, and August in an escrow account. He says Kelly “now looks forward to clearing his name in and being cleared of all charges in the near future.”

This is reportedly the first child support hearing since 2013, PEOPLE reports

Alison Motta, Andrea’s lawyer, said that they made the effort to make the case public so that it influenced Kelly to pay the money, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

On March 6, Kelly was arrested for not paying $161,633 that he owed Andrea. He was released three days later after an anonymous person posted his bail.

At a hearing following his release, Kelly asked the judge to decrease the monthly child support rate, declaring that he could not afford the amount. The rate is currently the same.

In related news, Cook County Judge Moira Johnson on Wednesday ruled that a sexual abuse lawsuit not tied to the child support case against Kelly will move forward.

The judgment was made by default after Kelly did not respond to the suit. His lawyers revealed that wasn’t able to do so because he was illiterate, detailing that he couldn’t read the papers that were served.