R. Kelly was tossed back in jail on Wednesday for failing to pay back child support. While the singer tried to negotiate a reduced payment with a payment plan, the judge denied the request, according to Entertainment Tonight . When asked why he couldn’t scrape up the cash, Kelly said that it’s because people have been taking money out of his account without his permission.
While speaking with Gayle King in an interview for CBS This Morning , Kelly tearfully told King that he was running low on cash because when he went to the bank he had no idea what was happening with his finances.
“Here’s the deal. So many people have been stealing my money. People was connected to my account,” he said. “I went by myself for the first time to Bank of America. Didn’t know what I was doing. Didn’t know what the hell was going on… Because I was so tired of not knowing where my money was.”
He continued, saying that he had just $350,000 left in his account.
“I had like $350,000 in the bank and I told her, ‘Look. Take that. I’m gonna start a new account and that’s the way it is,’” Kelly said. “She said, ‘OK. It’s gonna take six to seven business days to clear.’ Does that make sense?”
The singer appeared in court on Wednesday for a hearing about the $161,663 that he was being ordered to pay in back child support and told the judge that he could pay $50,000 or $60,000 right now and then make payments on the rest of the balance, but the judge wasn’t having it.
The news apparently disappointed Kelly, who had expected his offer to be accepted. His publicist says that they are working on coming up with the cash to get Kelly out of jail and he has another hearing on March 13.
ONLY ON @CBSThisMorning : New parts from @GayleKing ‘s explosive interview with R. Kelly. The singer is back in jail today for failing to pay child support and he tells Gayle why he doesn’t have the money pic.twitter.com/JHWT0Yg0I7
— Norah O’Donnell ?? (@NorahODonnell) March 7, 2019
Kelly also claimed that it was his ex-wife, Drea Kelly’s fault that he can’t come up with child support. He alleged that she is harming his good name and costing him work and that all of her claims against him are false.
Kelly also claimed that he is trying desperately to see his children and that he is more concerned with them than he is with his own career. But sources tell TMZ that the singer hasn’t reached out to his kids since 2017. He allegedly changed his number after he and his wife separated and never gave her the new number. Kelly also says that his ex-wife has brainwashed his kids against him.
