Grammy Award-winning R&B star R. Kelly walked off during a live interview with the Huffington Post on Monday after apparently becoming increasingly uncomfortable with questions regarding past sexual assault accusations against him.
The singer had joined HuffPost Live to discuss his thirteenth studio album, The Buffet, when things took a sudden turn halfway through.
Roughly seven and a half minutes into the 20-minute interview, host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani brought up the uncomfortable subject:
“When people think of R. Kelly, they don’t just think of the music… I think people find it difficult to not think about the multiple lawsuits, the multiple allegations of you having inappropriate relations, sex relations, with minors,” she pressed. “What do you say to those people who find it conflicting?”
The singer immediately went on the defensive: “Well, since you’re the one that brought it up, I’ll just say it to you, ’cause I don’t hear it from anyone else… I would say, again, ‘f—k that.’ I’m a man that believes what I see.”
Things only went downhill from there, as the interview devolved into a gabfest with both sides talking over one another. At one point, Kelly insulted the hosts’s “level of intelligence” and asked if she knew what a deposition was. Eventually, Kelly threatened to leave the interview and head over to McDonald’s (“Hopefully the McRib is out”) and then back to Chicago to work on an upcoming Christmas album.
The straw that broke the camel’s back appeared to be when Modarressy-Tehrani asked the singer what he would say to fans who are “concerned” about his past and may not buy his latest album as a result.
“It doesn’t matter who they are, if they hate me, they love me, they want to destroy me, whatever, I love them all,” Kelly replied shortly before walking out.
For a refresher on the sexual assault accusations against Kelly, check out the recap from then-Chicago Sun-Times music reporter Jim DeRogatis, courtesy of the Village Voice.
Check out the interview in full above (things get interesting at the 7:30 mark).