R. Kelly, who has his own past of legal problems, said in a new interview that he sympathizes with Bill Cosby as the comedian faces allegations from over 40 women that he sexually assaulted them.
During the interview with GQ, posted today, Kelly said it is “strange” that Cosby has been facing allegations from women decades after the incidents happened. He did not hesitate to say that he is still a fan of Cosby’s work.
“Well, my opinion on that is, I don't know what happened,” Kelly told the magazine. “I'm a fan of Bill Cosby's from the Bill Cosby show, of course—who's not?—and for me to give my opinion on something that I have no idea if it's true or not, all I can say is that it was a long time ago. And when I look on TV and I see the 70-, 80-, 90-year-old ladies talking about what happened when they were 17, 18, or 19, there's something strange about it. That's my opinion. It's just strange.”
The magazine asked him if the delay in coming forward mattered if the allegations turned out to be true. He said that god would show him the truth.
Kelly was accused of having underage sex and he later settled the case. However, he now believes that it was wrong to do that. He told GQ that he thinks he was being extorted and that people who think he settled because he was guilty “don’t know and understand the life of a celebrity.”
Kelly’s comments about Cosby come a few weeks after the former Cosby Show star was charged with aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand in 2004.