Content Warning: This article discusses sexual assault, and rape. If you or someone you know are affected by the following story, you are not alone. To speak to someone, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

R. Kelly has broken his silence in regards to the allegations of sexual abuse made against him, angrily denying everything in a new interview.

Recently, it was revealed that R. Kelly had been formally charged with ten counts of criminal sex abuse by a grand jury in Chicago. This announcement came just days after it had been revealed that a grand jury had convened to view what was claimed to be newly-surfaced evidence against the rapper.

The charges relate to Kelly’s sexual interactions with victims aged between 13 and 16, with the first records of his alleged abuse commencing in 1996. Each charge carries a sentence of three to seven years in prison, meaning Kelly could face up to 70 years in prison if convicted.

While Kelly has since been pleaded not guilty and released on bail, his lawyer Steve Greenberg made a statement in which he dismissed the charges against the rapper, claiming that the witnesses that have come forward made up their allegations.

“I think all the women are lying, yes,” Greenberg explained to reporters. “This has become, ‘Hey, R. Kelly – I can say R. Kelly did something’ – boom.”

“There was a press conference yesterday, ‘Oh, these two girls were assaulted by R Kelly!’ And the lawyer stood there with a picture of LL Cool J!”

Now, R. Kelly has broken his silence, denying all the charges against him in a new interview.

As TMZ reports, R. Kelly recently sat down with reporter Gayle King of CBS This Morning for an interview that will air on Wednesday morning, Eastern US time.

In excerpts of the interview that have been released already, R. Kelly addresses his previous legal cases, noting that he is unable to go into further detail due to “my ongoing case now”.

“But I will tell you this: people are going back to my past, OK? That’s exactly what they’re doing,” Kelly continues. “They’re going back to the past, and they trying to add all of this stuff now to that. To make all of this stuff that’s going on now feels real to people.”

Denying that the past is relevant to these new charges, Kelly explains that, “I beat my case. When you beat something, you beat it.”

“You can’t double-jeopardy me like that. You can’t. It’s not fair. It’s not fair to nobody. When you beat your case, you beat your case.”

While Gayle King notes that a lot of the new allegations that R. Kelly is facing are in fact not from his distant past, the rapper explains that it is “not true”, noting that they are still “rumours” regardless of the time they were alleged to have happened.

In another excerpt, which shows the artist becoming extremely emotional, Kelly is heard denying that he ever held women against their will. “I don’t need to. Why would I?” he questions.

“How stupid would it be for R. Kelly, with all I’ve been through in my way, way past, to hold somebody, let alone four, five, six, 50, you said – how stupid would I be to do that?

“That’s stupid!” Kelly exclaims directly into the camera. “Use your common sense. Forget the blogs, forget how you feel about me.”

“Hate me if you want to, love me if you want. But just use your common sense,” he requests.

“How stupid would it be for me, with my crazy past and what I’ve been through… ‘oh, right now I just think I need to be monster, hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement, and don’t let them eat, and don’t let them out, unless they need some shoes down the street from their uncle!’”

“Stop it,” Kelly pleads with with tears in his eyes. “You all quit playing! Quit playing! I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my fucking life!”

The full interview with R. Kelly is set to air on Wednesday morning in America, at approximately 11pm AEDT in Australia.

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