Despite R. Kelly threatening legal action against Lifetime, the station aired the first of their six-part series Surviving R. Kelly on Thursday night. The docuseries dives into the sexual history of Kelly, and interviews over 50 women that claim they are victims of sexual, physical, or mental abuse. The stories of R. Kelly's sexual exploits have been revolving around the industry for years, but Surviving R. Kelly escalates the conversation with some truly hard to stomach evidence.
"These are women who lived in his house and studio for years, and have the same story about being forbidden to talk," the show's executive producer Dream Hampton told Complex. "So once those women become free of those barriers, they're looking to connect with each other, to know that they weren't the only ones. Those women are from different decades. [We had to] find women from different decades, who had near-identical stories of being denied food, denied movement in the house, denied conversation with other human beings. Physical abuse, again and again." After the episode aired, several celebrities took to Twitter to speak about the emotional display. John Legend, who is featured on the show, wasn't shy about letting his feeling about R. Kelly out. "I believe these women and don't give a fuck about protecting a serial child rapist," he tweeted. https://twitter.com/_/status/1081027080161128449
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