R. Kelly Called 'Puppet Master' Of 'Cult' In Gwinnett County: Report

DULUTH, GA — R&B star R. Kelly is accused of holding at least six women against their will in an abusive and controlling cult-like setting in two rented properties — including one in Duluth.

The allegations come from the parents of one of the women, who is a former Georgia Gwinnett College student, as well as former members of the "I Believe I Can Fly" singer's inner circle, according to a BuzzFeed report by Jim DeRogatis on Monday.

Described as a "puppet master" by three women who had been a part of his entourage over the years, Kelly — whose real name is Robert Kelly — is said to dictate the daily routines of the women who occupy his Chicago recording studio and a "guest house" in Duluth, going so far as to require them to wear jogging suits to cover up their figures. In fact, Kelly's control allegedly extends to when the women — who he allegedly refers to as his "babies " — bathe, as well as when and how they have sex, which he records, according to the BuzzFeed report.

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"You have to ask for food. You have to ask to go use the bathroom …," Cheryl Mack, who was the singer's personal assistant for a year and a half and still has contact with his inner circle, told DeRogatis. "[Kelly] is a master at mind control. ... He is a puppet master."

Mack and two other ex-Kelly confidants — Kitti Jones and Asante McGee — also told DeRogatis that Kelly is allegedly not above resorting to verbal and physical abuse to punish any of his "babies" who step out of line. Jones accuses Kelly of holding her against a tree and slapping her after she "had been too friendly" with a sandwich shop cashier in 2013, according to the BuzzFeed report.

Kelly's trio of former inner circle members also told DeRogatis that the women who resided at one of the entertainer's rental properties as of last summer included a "den mother," 31, who, until recently, allegedly tutored new members of Kelly's entourage on what he enjoyed sexually and a Florida singer, 18, who had earned the distinction as the 50-year-old Kelly's "favorite." Another resident includes an aspiring singer in her early 20s from Georgia who met Kelly in 2015 when she was 19.

The woman's parents have told law enforcement officials at the federal and local levels that they believe their daughter has been brainwashed by Kelly.

"[She] looked like a prisoner — it was horrible," the woman's mother told DeRogatis about the last time she saw her daughter in December of 2016. "I hugged her and hugged her. But she just kept saying she’s in love, and [Kelly] is the one who cares for her. I don’t know what to do. I hope that if I get her back, I can get her treatment for victims of cults. They can reprogram her. But I wish I could have stopped it from happening."

After a backstage visit with Kelly at a California concert, the aspiring singer from Georgia began secretly talking with Kelly on her cell phone, her mother told Buzzfeed.

In June 2015, her parents say she lied to them about taking a weekend trip to visit a college in Georgia and, instead, flew to Oklahoma City, where Kelly was performing.

In June 2016, she enrolled for summer classes at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville and began living in the dorms. Her roommate at the school told Buzzfeed that the woman would often call R. Kelly and put him on speakerphone during their explicit sexual conversations. She also visited the guest house in Duluth and sometimes traveled with the singer to Chicago, the roommate said.

The woman eventually began skipping all of her classes at GGC and she didn't show up to take her finals in mid-December, according to the report.

The parents would eventually file a missing persons report with Georgia Gwinnett College campus police. The school told Buzzfeed that, once an investigator determined the woman, who is 21 years old, was with Kelly in Duluth, no action could be taken because she's of legal age to do what she wants.

Kelly hasn't been formally charged of any crime in the wake of these allegations. The women in his entourage all are of legal age, and recent law enforcement welfare checks at both residences did not uncover any wrongdoing, the BuzzFeed article reports.

The singer, however, has a checkered legal history when it comes to accusations of sexual impropriety with underage girls. In 2008, Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges centering around a video recording that allegedly showed him having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Police were given the tape by DeRogatis, the author of the BuzzFeed piece, after it had been sent to him anonymously while he was the music writer at the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002.

Although Kelly was acquitted of criminal charges in 2008, he has faced numerous civil lawsuits accusing him of pursuing sexual relationships with underage girls. Kelly has settled those cases with cash payouts. In 1994, he was secretly married to the late singer-actress Aaliyah when she was 15 and he was 27. (Aaliyah claimed she was 18 on marriage documents.) The marriage was annulled a year later.

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Patch's Joe Vince in Chicago contributed to this report.

Photo by Charles Sykes | Associated Press