R&B singer R. Kelly has denied allegations he is holding several women against their will in an "abusive cult."
The claims were made in a BuzzFeed report Monday, describing the musician—real name Robert Kelly—as housing six women in properties in Chicago and Atlanta and controlling all aspects of their life, including who they can and cannot communicate with and when they can bathe.
Kelly's lawyer, Linda Mensch, told the BBC the singer "unequivocally denies such accusations and will work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his name."
Mensch said Kelly was "both alarmed and disturbed by the recent revelations attributed to him."
The BuzzFeed report cited three women who are "former members of Kelly's inner circle" who detailed the singer's alleged controlling behavior. They said the six women who live in properties maintained by Kelly are punished both verbally and physically if they break one of the star's "rules."
The parents of one woman aged 21 told BuzzFeed that their daughter has been "brainwashed" by Kelly since she met him following a concert in March 2015. The woman, who identified herself as Joycelyn Savage to TMZ Monday, is reported to have moved in with Kelly and broken off contact with her parents.
In a video published by TMZ, Savage, an aspiring singer, said she was "in a happy place in my life…I'm not being brainwashed. … I am totally fine."
In January, Cook County Police in Illinois paid a visit to one of Kelly's properties in Chicago to conduct a welfare visit at the behest of the parents of one of the girls alleged to be in his "cult." According to Billboard, police officers visited the house on January 30 and found that the woman "appeared to be in good health with no visible injuries or markings."
In 2008, the "I Believe I Can Fly" singer was acquitted of 14 counts of making child pornography by a Chicago court.
