Is R. Kelly Holding Women Hostage In An Abusive Sex Cult?

Shocking new allegations have surfaced that R. Kelly is allegedly running an abusive "sex cult," according to a report published by BuzzFeed.

Cheryl Mack, Kitti Jones, and Asante McGee — all former members of Kelly’s inner circle — told BuzzFeed that Kelly controls the lives of six women who live in his homes in Chicago and Atlanta by "dictating what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records."

Mack said that Kelly was a "puppet master," and Mack, Jones, and McGee claim that women who live with Kelly, whom he calls his “babies,” are required to call him “Daddy” and must ask his permission to leave their rooms. The women claim that Kelly confiscates cell phones and monitors the women's communication.

One mother, identified only as "J," said that her daughter met Kelly in May 2015 and that he promised to help her with her musical career. J said she’d heard about past sexual misconduct accusations against Kelly, but at the time was not overly worried. She went on to allege that Kelly is now holding her daughter against her will — and explained that she has contacted the FBI and police in two states, but law enforcement does not consider her daughter a missing person since she is a legal adult.

The daughter, who has been identified as Jocelyn Savage, now 21, has come forward to deny the allegations made by family about Kelly. She told TMZ that she's not in a cult and is happy and well.

"I'm in a happy place in my life; I'm not being brainwashed," she says in the video, although she does not divulge her exact location.

Kelly has unequivocally denied all of the allegations against him. A rep for the singer told TMZ, "Mr. Robert Kelly is both alarmed and disturbed by the recent revelations attributed to him. Mr. Kelly unequivocally denies such accusations and will work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his name."

Kelly has sold over 40 million albums during his 25-year career and is known for "I Believe I Can Fly" and his hip-hop opera series "Trapped in the Closet."

Although all of the women in Kelly's current circle are reportedly legal adults, Kelly's history with underage girls is well-known. On February 3, 2002, a video surfaced allegedly showing Kelly engaging in sex with — and urinating on — an underage girl. In June 2002, Kelly was indicted in Chicago on 21 counts of child pornography.

During a search of Kelly's Florida residence, authorities recovered 12 images of an alleged underage girl on a digital camera. Kelly was arrested in January 2003 on those charges, but they were dropped in 2004 due to a lack of probable cause for the search warrants.

He was last tried in 2008 in Illinois, when he was acquitted of 14 charges of making child pornography. The case focused on a single instance of him shown on video allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

He has also been the subject of several civil lawsuits — his attorney Susan E. Loggans declined to tell BuzzFeed how many settlements she has negotiated with Kelly, but admitted that they were “numerous.”

In 1994, he married his protégé, Aaliyah, for whom he wrote the album Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number. She was 15 at the time.

The marriage was annulled in February 1995 at the behest of Aaliyah's family by a Michigan judge.

Kelly and Aaliyah denied in public that the marriage occurred, however, in May 1997 Aaliyah filed a lawsuit to have the marriage records expunged due to the fact that she had been too young to marry without parental permission.

Regarding the current allegations, some neighbors have hit back at claims that they turned a blind eye to Kelly's alleged abuse, and told TMZ that Kelly's home seemed more like a party house than a cult compound.

According to TMZ, neighbors in Kelly's now-vacant home in a gated compound in Duluth, Georgia, said they were aware of "a bunch" of women partying with Kelly and his entourage, but said that they seemed to come and go as they please.

Read more: Buzzfeed, TMZ