R Kelly ‘coached women on what to say’ during infamous interview with Gayle King, court hears

R Kelly allegedly coached two women on what to say during an infamous TV interview with Gayle King, according to testimony at the singer’s trial in Brooklyn.

A woman testifying under the pseudonym Jane Doe brought up the interview, which aired on CBS News in March 2019. The segment made headlines due to Kelly’s combative behaviour during his conversation with King. At one point, he got up from his chair, lost his calm, and yelled.

The interview also included contributions from two women who were live-in girlfriends of Kelly’s at the time.

Doe testified on Tuesday that Kelly was there in the shadows when she and the other women spoke to King for the segment. She described how he would cough as a signal to keep them on script, backing up his denials, she said, according to The Associated Press.

“He was letting us know he was in the room with us,” she said of the cough.

According to Reuters, Doe testified that Kelly also coached them on what to say during the interview.

Doe also told the court that Kelly barred his live-in girlfriends from watching Surviving R Kelly, the Lifetime documentary series detailing allegations of sexual abuse on Kelly’s part.

If the programme came on TV, “we were to immediately change the channel”, Doe told the court.

Kelly, 54, has repeatedly denied accusations that he preyed on several alleged victims during his 30-year career.

In New York, he faces a federal charge of racketeering “predicated on criminal conduct including sexual exploitation of children, kidnapping, forced labor and Mann Act violations involving the coercion and transportation of women and girls in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sexual activity”.

Kelly also faces four counts of violating the Mann Act related to his interstate transportation of a victim to New York to engage in illegal sexual activity, and his exposure of her to an infectious venereal disease without her knowledge.

He has pleaded not guilty to other sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

Kelly has been in custody since his federal indictment was announced in 2019.

If convicted on all counts, he faces 10 years to life imprisonment.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story