R&B star R. Kelly has weighed in on Bill Cosby and his many alleged sexual assault victims, saying only a higher power can prove the comedian is guilty of abuse — as opposed to the personal accounts of dozens of women.
‘When I look on TV and I see the 70-, 80-, 90-year-old ladies talking about what happened when they were 17, 18, 19, there’s something strange about it,” Kelly told
“If God showed me that they were telling the truth, I would say that’s wrong. I don’t care if it was a zillion years ago. But God would have to do that, because God is the only one can show me that. No man can tell me that. No woman can tell me that. And when you wait 70 years, 50 years, 40 years, to say something that simple, it’s strange,” he added.
The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer is no stranger to sexual assault allegations himself, as he was indicted on and later found not guilty of 14 counts of child pornography in 2002.
“Why I say that is because it happened to me, and it wasn’t true,” he said in defense of his comments about the victims.
The magazine pushed further about his personal experience with similar allegations, ones Kelly wont discuss to this day for fear they could resurface in courts and the media.
“Because of my lawyers, to this day I cannot have those kind of conversations … because they could come back to haunt me,” Kelly said. “Things could come back and they can just restart all over again. And I have to protect myself.”
In regards to his innocence, Kelly said, “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.”