'Surviving R. Kelly' Latest Episode Reveals 'Chilling' Details About Abuser's Grooming of Young Men

When the Lifetime docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly" debuted four years ago years, R. Kelly was a free man. The R&B singer's career has long been dogged by allegations of underage girl abuse, which first surfaced in the early 90s, but he remained one of the most successful hitmakers of that decade and in the 2000s. Also during this time, Kelly was briefly imprisoned and arraigned for an indictment in 2002 on 21 counts of child pornography. He was acquitted in 2008.

Kelly's circumvention of the legal system hurt his career as an artist, but there is no not ended. It wasn't until the premiere of "Surviving R. Kelly" in early 2019 that public opinion began to shift. The series was greenlit before the initial impact of the #MeToo movement in October 2017 and was the first programming event of the #MeToo era to give voice to survivors, ultimately bringing justice from screen to court. The series centers on the stories of black women, an underrepresented group in social justice.

Kelly is serving a 30-year prison sentence today, after being convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking in 2022. Kelly was also convicted in Chicago of three counts of child pornography for filming herself sexually abusing her then 14-year-old goddaughter. He still faces charges in other jurisdictions.

The third and final episode of "Surviving R. Kelly" centers on the trial that put Kelly Behind Bars, following survivors and their families as they prepare to testify in the highly publicized court proceedings. The new episodes also focus on the journalists who covered the trial, as well as other legal and trauma experts.

"We're in a very different place at the start of this episode than we were there ago more than four years when we started this journey. He faces some very serious crimes," says executive producer Jesse Daniels, who has been on "Surviving R. Kelly" from the beginning and has been actively involved in the development of the series. revolutionary.

In 2017, Daniels read a Buzzfeed article written by Jim DeRogatis, the reporter who broke the R. Kelly barraged with a 2000 report in the Chicago Sun-Times, which is widely credited as the first domino to fall in R. Kelly's empire. Despite this report and the video evidence, which was the focus of R. Kelly's 2008 trial, the criminal justice system took decades to catch up with DeRogatis' investigative work and the stories of survivors. "I remember the story had an impact, but after that nothing really happened," Daniels said of the 2017 article. At that time, Daniels spoke with his colleagues producers and asked why nothing had happened. With that, "Surviving R. Kelly" was born. "That was the inspiration and motivation to dig deeper into this," he says.

R. Kelly's accusers said he kept them as sex slaves, essentially part of cult, locked up at home, without access to their family or the outside world. He groomed young women and men who aspired to be singers and recorded them as he forced them into sexual acts. The six-week trial in 2022 revealed how R. Kelly used employees and intermediaries to lure hopeful fans and singers into sexually abusive and controlling conditions, including locking them in rooms without food or access to a bathroom for days.

At his 2022 federal trial in New York, "Surviving R. Kelly" was mentioned 150 time in the courtroom.

In the first episode of "Surviving R. Kelly", the victims' parents talked about trying to get their daughters home. But a family always struggles. Joycelyn Savage was 19 when she met Kelly, and the two are said to be engaged. Last year she published a book in which she said she was carrying R. Kelly's child, and last month she posted a photo of a newborn announcing that she had welcomed a new baby with R. Kelly imprisoned, although his lawyer denied his claim.

Savage's parents are featured extensively in "Surviving R. Kelly", emotionally discussing their fight to reconnect with their daughter. The last installment...