Shockwaves reverberated across social media when, on Monday, reports surfaced that Joycelyn Savage, one of the women groomed and sexually abused by R Kelly, reportedly has plans to marry the convicted R&B singer.
Is Joycelyn Savage engaged to R Kelly?
News of Savage’s reported engagement first surfaced in the last week of June 2022, when AllHipHop broke the story, citing a letter filed to Judge Anne Donnelly where the 26-year-old pleaded for a reduced sentence.
Kelly was charged with multiple sex crimes, trafficking and racketeering, and Judge Donnelly, it seems, gave Savage’s pleas no consideration since she handed Kelly a 30-year prison sentence.
According to Savage, however, the Dance In The Name of Love crooner “is not the monster that the government has described him to be.”
“The Robert I know is very sweet, gentle, and kind. At the end of the day, he has always made sure that I’m taken care of, and any other women he was with as well,” she wrote.
You can read Savage’s full letter to the judge below:
Savage’s plea for leniency on Kelly, whom she regards as “an all-around incredible person,” is a complete reversal of the man she described in her 2019 Patreon exposé.
Back then, Savage released a tell-all series about her history with Kelly, claiming he had lured her out of college and into his mansion with the promise of moulding her into the next Aaliyah.
What was supposed to an artist BootCamp turned into a sexual relationship in a matter of months and before she knew it, Savage, in her own words, claims she was ordered to refer to Kelly as “master” or “daddy”.
“If I wasn’t getting paid or pursuing my dream I would’ve went home, but all of that didn’t stop just yet. But It started getting worse by day by day, he would raise his voice at me if I didn’t call him by those two names. If Robert called me I would have to reply with ‘Yes, daddy’ or ‘Please daddy’ he was so controlling,” she wrote at the time.
Months after Kelly was arrested in Chicago, in 2019, however, Savage and Kelly’s other live-in sex slave Azriel Clary, made a complete u-turn on their accusations and blasted their own parents for using them as pawns in a money-grab.
“Both our parents are basically out here trying to get money and scam, because they didn’t agree on what happened, you know, with music or whatever it could be. And they’re just very upset,” Savage told Gayle King in a CBS This Morning interview.
While no indications of Savage’s public support for Kelly were found on her social media, it’s believed the 26-year-old has reignited the flames with the sex convict.