Gayle King says she was irritated by R. Kelly’s constant coughing interruptions while she interviewed his 2 live-in girlfriends this week.
King, 64, was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday night, where she discussed her explosive interview with Kelly that people are still buzzing about.
Earlier this week, the CBS This Morning co-anchor spoke to the embattled singer about numerous allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct against underage girls and women, which he had vehemently denied.
Afterwards, King sat down to chat with Kelly’s live-in girlfriends, Joycelyn Savage, 23 (pictured right), and Azriel Clary, 21. The women’s parents allege they are currently in abusive relationships with Kelly, but Savage and Clary denied any abusive behavior.
During King’s discussion with the women, she noted that the R&B star often tried to interrupt them.
“I saw Robert leave, I did not see him come back in. So, I did not know that he had come back in, neither did (his publicist) Darryll Johnson, who had assured me that he would not be (there),” she told Colbert.
“R. Kelly comes back in and he can hear the conversation, he’s out of my eyesight and he’s out of the girls’ eyesight too, they did not see him. But when there was a question he didn’t like, and I can’t remember what it was, you’d hear this (loud coughing). Now I’m a little irritated because I’m thinking, ‘Who on the crew is coughing like that?’
“Then it becomes clear to me that it is R. Kelly. I’m told that R. Kelly is talking to members of my own team (and saying), ‘They (Savage and Clary) are doing OK, they’re doing OK, should I go in and stop it? Should I go in and stop it?’ He’s having a dialogue with people on my team. And (make-up artist Lazarus Jean-Baptiste) says, ‘No, you should probably just leave it alone.'”
Colbert asked King about the now-viral photo taken by Jean-Baptiste on the set, in which she is seated while an enraged Kelly towers over her and gestures wildly.
The anchorwoman explained that she wasn’t afraid, she was simply focused on staying calm in that moment.
“I could see him getting more heated, he was upset with me about some of the questions. So, when I see Robert getting really upset, and he stands out of his seat, my initial reaction was: ‘Oh God, please don’t leave, please don’t leave,'” King recalled.
King said she was determined to make eye contact with the 52-year-old to calm him down. “I thought if we had both gotten emotional and amped up like that, what good would have come of that? So, I thought, ‘Be calm, say his name,’ because you know when someone does say your name, it is soothing.”
Kelly was previously charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse against four alleged victims, three of them minors. A friend put up the 10% of his $1 million bail to bond him out of jail last week.
But Kelly was tossed back in jail on Wednesday after failing to make $161,000 in child support payments. He is also facing a new investigation over claims he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl and later gave her herpes when she was 17.
His next scheduled court appearance is March 13.
