K. Michelle says that she was once in love with R. Kelly.
Fans of the singer and reality star, whose full name is Kimberly Michelle Pate, have long speculated that she and the disgraced R&B artist had previously engaged in a romantic relationship, but speaking to Jason Lee on BET Network, she admitted to it for the first time.
“I was in love with him,” she told Lee.
Speaking to the nature of their relationship, Pate said she did not experience “an abusive Rob,” and that her feelings toward him were not reciprocated.
“I might have loved him, but he didn’t see me as anything more than motivation for writing. I wasn’t the woman he wanted, even though I wanted him,” she said, adding that she learned about the music business and songwriting skills from him.
Kelly is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence after being convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering. This came after decades-long accusations that he was grooming and sexually abusing underage girls.
K also said Kelly’s protege, the singer Sparkle, should go to prison, after telling Lee that “mothers and people should be held accountable” for enabling Kelly’s crimes. Sparkle’s niece, Reshona Landfair, is the “Jane Doe” in the child pornography tape that Kelly was prosecuted for making in 2002. After six years of trial, Kelly was acquitted. Landfair, now 41, has written a memoir titled “Who’s Watching Shorty: Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse,” in which she names Sparkle as the person who introduced her to Kelly for him to groom her.
Sparkle, whose name is Stephanie Edwards, has denied her niece’s claims.
Pate spoke to the abuse accusations that landed Kelly in prison, saying he was “absolutely completely wrong,” but that “those people around him never corrected him,” adding that she was not excusing Kelly’s behavior, and that she’s a “woman advocate.”
