CHICAGO: R. Kelly’s day began with a nationally televised broadcast in which he whispered, cried and ranted while pleading with viewers to believe him: He’d never had sex with anyone under 17 and never held anyone against her will.
The day ended with a trip to jail after the embattled R&B singer told a judge he could not pay $161,000 in back child support he owes his children’s mother.
Kelly no doubt hoped the raw interview aired Wednesday on “CBS This Morning” would help sway public opinion about the charges filed last month that accuse him of sexually abusing three girls and a woman. The interview was his first public defense since being charged and the first time he addressed allegations in the Lifetime series “Surviving R. Kelly,” which aired in January. The documentary alleged that he held women captive and ran a “sex cult.”
But experts said his appearance was also risky and could backfire if it gives prosecutors more information to use against him at trial. That’s why most defense attorneys urge clients to keep quiet.
“In my history as a prosecutor, I loved it when a defendant would say things or make comments about his or her defense,” said Illinois Appellate Judge Joseph Birkett, who said he did not watch the Kelly interview and was speaking only as a former prosecutor. “I would document every word they said ... (and) I could give you example after example where their statements backfired.”
There have been cases in which people who spoke up pointed to evidence that ultimately helped win their freedom, but, Birkett said, “historically it’s a bad idea.”
One recent example was “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, who was charged with falsely reporting a racist, anti-gay attack in Chicago. In charging documents, prosecutors cited statements he made during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” identifying two people in a still photo of the surveillance video as his attackers. Two brothers pictured in the photo later told police that Smollett had paid them to stage the attack because he wanted a raise and to further his career.
In Kelly’s case, he and his attorney might have decided they had nothing to lose after the Lifetime series, said Fred Thiagarajah, a prominent Newport Beach, California, attorney and former prosecutor.
“A lot of the public already thinks he’s guilty, and there is a very negative image of him, so the only thing he might think he can do is try to change their minds,” Thiagarajah said. If the evidence against him is overwhelming, “this kind of interview might be kind of a Hail Mary” to influence a potential jury pool.
But the dangers of such an interview might outweigh any benefits if Kelly locked himself into a particular defense, Thiagarajah said. “He may not know all the evidence against him.”
In the CBS interview, for example, he denied ever having sex with anyone under 17, even though he married the late singer Aaliyah when she was 15, and a videotape given to prosecutors in his current case purports to show Kelly having sex with a girl who repeatedly says she’s 14. Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, has said his client did not “knowingly” have sex with underage girls.
Thiagarajah said he might allow a client to do such an interview — but only if he were confident the client could keep his emotions in check and “stick to a script.”
“If you get someone who is ranting and raving, I would never let that kind of person ever do an interview,” he said.
On Wednesday’s broadcast, Kelly’s emotions swung wildly as he explained he was simply someone with a “big heart” who was betrayed by liars who hoped to cash in.
In a particularly dramatic moment, he angrily stood up and started pacing, his voice breaking as he yelled, “I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me!” He cried as he hit his hands together, saying, “I’m fighting for my (expletive) life.”
He insisted people were trying to ruin his 30-year career, but then said his fight was “not about music.”
“I’m trying to have a relationship with my kids and I can’t do it” because of the sex-abuse allegations, he shouted. “You all just don’t want to believe it.”
Hours later, Kelly went to the child-support hearing “expecting to leave. He didn’t come here to go to jail,” said his publicist, Darryll Johnson, who said Kelly was prepared to pay $50,000 to $60,000. He said Kelly did not have the whole amount because he has not been able to work.
A spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said Kelly would not be released from jail until he pays the full child-support debt. His next hearing was scheduled for March 13.
After his Feb. 22 arrest in Chicago, Kelly spent a weekend in jail before someone posted his $100,000 bail. His defense attorney said at the time that Kelly’s finances were “a mess.”
Following the court hearing, the publicist said that the singer “feels good” about the TV interview.
CBS said it interviewed Kelly for 80 minutes. More of the interview is expected to air Thursday.
Interviews with two women who live with Kelly — Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary — also are set to air Thursday. Savage’s parents insist she is being held against her will. Kelly suggested during the interview that her parents were in it for the money and blamed them for his relationship with their daughter, saying they brought her to watch him perform when she was a teenager.
A lawyer representing the couple bristled at the allegation, saying Timothy and Jonjelyn Savage never asked for or received money from Kelly. The couple said they have not spoken to their 23-year-old daughter for two years and asked Kelly to make her available to talk to them.
“At no point did this family sell their daughter to anyone or provide their daughter for anything for money,” attorney Gerald Griggs said Wednesday during a news conference.
Kelly acknowledged in the interview that he had done “lots of things wrong” when it comes to women, but he said he had apologized. The singer blamed social media for fueling the allegations against him. He also said that all of his accusers are lying.
The 52-year-old recording artist has been trailed for decades by allegations that he violated underage girls and women and held some as virtual slaves. Kelly has consistently denied any sexual misconduct and was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008. Those charges centered on a graphic video that prosecutors said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13.
He has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse.
Rising from poverty on Chicago’s South Side, Kelly broke into the R&B scene in 1993 with his first solo album, “12 Play,” which produced such popular sex-themed songs as “Your Body’s Callin’” and “Bump N’ Grind.” He has written numerous hits for himself and other artists, including Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. One of his best-known hits is “I Believe I Can Fly.”
R. Kelly in jail over child support
R. Kelly in jail over child support
- The interview was his first public defense since being charged of sexually abusing three girls and a woman
- His next hearing was scheduled for March 13
Fragrant tradition: Taif rose oil production season begins
- Local farmer gives insights on production involving up to 550m roses annually
- Meticulous process yields fragrant rose oil and rose water, both of which are widely used for perfuming, culinary applications and other purposes
JEDDAH: The production season for Tola, the renowned Taif rose oil, has begun in Saudi Arabia.
Almost 70 factories and workshops are now operating across the high peaks of Taif’s mountains, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The traditional distillation process is followed to extract and produce more than 80 derivatives of the Taif rose, which enjoy widespread popularity in local and international markets.
The region’s farms produce more than 550 million roses annually, making Tola a distinctive cultural and economic symbol.
According to local farmer Khalaf Al-Tuwairqi, families in the past began rose picking at dawn.
He learned the art of distillation from his father, who had established a traditional workshop on their farm.
In an interview with the SPA, Al-Tuwairqi said that Tola is extracted immediately after harvesting, with 80,000 to 100,000 roses placed each day into special copper pots. The quantity depends on the pot’s capacity and is measured using a scale.
The process begins by lighting a fire beneath the pot to produce steam, which passes through a pipe in the pot’s lid and into a container of water.
This cools and condenses the vapor into droplets, which then flow into a narrow-necked bottle known as “talqiyah,” capable of holding 20 to 35 liters.
The pure rose oil floats at the top of this container.
Al-Tuwairqi added that his ancestors mastered the techniques of rose oil extraction, with one Tola requiring about 70,000 roses.
Traditionally, this was done using fire pits built inside mud-brick structures ranging from one to three meters in length and about one meter in height.
The vapor from rose petals was condensed into liquid form, which dripped into a glass container. The resulting oil was then bottled in small glass vials.
The meticulous process yields fragrant rose oil and rose water, both of which are widely used for perfuming, culinary applications and other purposes.
Milan Design Week 2025: Italian Lebanese entrepreneur Jwana Hamdan presents Al Bustan
- Welcoming forms of Hamdan’s new collection
DUBAI: During Milan Design Week 2025, Jwana Hamdan, the eponymous outdoor design brand founded by the Italian Lebanese entrepreneur, is presenting Al Bustan, a dreamy outdoor furniture collection replete with Arab influences.
Showcased in the heart of Brera, one of Milan’s most iconic districts known for its elegant courtyards and palazzi, Hamdan’s latest collection for Al Bustan, which takes its name from the Arabic name for “flourishing garden,” is called The Wandering Majlis Collection and presents an immersive courtyard installation inspired by the harmonious geometries, woven textiles and lines and symbolism reflective of landscapes and design along the Mediterranean, particularly the Lebanese coast, where Hamdan’s heritage lies.
Hamdan, who moved to Italy with her family when she was just 5, knows her homeland through frequent summer visits. She now has relatives in the UAE, which she has visited often over the last few years. Imbuing her furniture with references from Lebanon and the Arabian Gulf is a way for Hamdan to connect with her Arabic heritage.
“I came up with this collection because I was missing my identity,” Hamdan told Arab News. “Design has become a tool, an art form, with which to express myself. I chose design because I live in the design district in Milan. I am surrounded by the design industry.”
Hamdan’s family has worked in design ever since moving to Italy. Her father worked for a fabrics company and her family runs a company that manufactures products for designers. Hamdan launched her own eponymous label during the coronavirus pandemic. Its inspiration was derived from how people gather, especially in the Middle East.
The welcoming forms of Hamdan’s new furniture collection, with their rich color palette evocative of olive groves and the light found in Lebanon, is akin to an outdoor Arabic majlis designed with Hamdan’s elegant contemporary style. Each piece has been entirely produced in Italy.
The majlis, a traditional gathering space in Arab cultures, is reinterpreted through a series of furnishings made in an iroko wood frame and designed to create spontaneous yet sophisticated meeting places. The majlis sofa is a lounge seat that embodies a simple and authentic outdoor lifestyle, while Maitha, meaning “fertile garden” in Arabic, is an elegant and inviting lounge chair decorated in an evocative floor pattern and colored in deep magenta. The structure of the Maitha is made of iroko wood, while the seat and back cushions are removable. It is available in versions with or without the armrest.
The ghaf table, on the other hand, is named after the drought-tolerant tree that one finds throughout the Arabian Gulf and that also constitutes a symbol of tolerance. Designed by Lorenza Bozzoli, the table features a laser-cut base that reflects the tree’s deep roots to symbolize the strength and the inherent grace found in the natural environment.
Enhancing the collection are the amar and shams coffee tables, named after the words for the moon and the sun in Arabic. Their minimalist design with their circular tops evokes an earthy aesthetic, presenting the idea of oneness with nature and a harmonious lifestyle exemplifying the Arab notion of communal gathering.
“The Italians spend their time gathering in the kitchen while Arabs spend hours upon hours in the majlis area,” said Hamdan. “These pieces were inspired by my memories of Lebanon in the summer, passing time with others while outdoors.”
Sotheby’s to auction rare collection of Islamic arms, armor
DUBAI: On Apr. 29 and 30, Sotheby’s will auction pieces from the Philippe Missillier Collection of Arms and Armor, one of the most important and rarest collections of its kind to come to auction.
The collection, which spans over 100 lots representing more than 500 years of history, features unique and iconic pieces from the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires. Before the auction, the collection will be exhibited at Sotheby’s Dubai in DIFC from April 7-11 and April 25-28.
It was assembled by Philippe Gilles Rene Missillier (1949-2022), a scholar and collector who spent more than 50 years studying, acquiring, visiting museums and documenting artifacts to master the subject of his interest: Arms of the Islamic world.
In 1988, a large majority of his collection was exhibited in Paris in the exhibition Splendour des Armes Orientales (The Splendor of Oriental Armor), marking the largest exhibition of its kind over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Sotheby’s sale marks the first time his collection is being seen since then.
“This is a landmark sale,” Benedict Carter, Sotheby’s senior director and head of auction sales, Middle East, told Arab News. “For us, this is really the most significant sale in terms of Islamic arms and armor that has been staged.”
Highlights from the collection include weaponry across various Islamic dynasties from Spain to Indonesia, with the star of the auction one of a small group of personal swords belonging to Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, whose reign from 1629-58 marked a period of importance for Mughal architecture and cultural achievements. The sword carries the inscriptions “World-Capturer,” in an affirmation of Shah Jahan’s skills as a military commander. The sword is recorded in the accounts of Venetian traveler Niccolao Manucci, who documented the personal swords of Shah Jahan’s son, Aurangzeb, who most likely inherited it from his father.
The sword’s provenance is fascinating. It entered various prestigious collections during the 19th and 20th centuries, including those of Charles Canning, governor-general and first viceroy of India, and most recently that of George Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood.
Neither Sotheby’s nor Christie’s has staged a standalone sale for arms and armor in about two decades, making the sale significant.
“Occasionally, in our various owner sales every April and October we have (arms and armor) pieces that have come up,” added Carter. “But this is the first time in recent memory that we’ve had a major single owner collection associated with a name that is synonymous with refined taste and deep scholarship.”
Highlights from Art Week Riyadh: Selected works by some of the Saudi artists participating in the inaugural edition
RIYADH: Selected works by some of the Saudi artists participating in the inaugural edition of Art Week Riyadh, which begins April 6.
Maha Malluh
‘X-Rayed 1’
The Najd-born artist is one of the most significant figures in the Kingdom’s contemporary scene. Several of her works will be on show at AWR. This one comes from her “X-Rayed” series, in which Malluh used images from an actual x-ray scanner of an actual passenger’s luggage, as would be seen at airport security when possessions are “being targeted and scrutinized,” the artist has written. “What makes these images even more peculiar is that the suitcases contain cassettes (labeled in Arabic) that are linked to dogmatic interpretations of Islamic practice,” she continued. “It is these ideas, when exported, which have led to several social evils, including the export of extreme thinking and rigid philosophy.” Like many of Malluh’s other series, “X-Rayed” examines “my own culture and its transformation from tradition to modernity.”
Lulwah Al-Homoud
From ‘The Language of Existence’
This work forms part of the influential Riyadh-born artist and calligrapher’s “The Language of Existence” series, in which she presented interpretations of the myriad Arabic names of Allah. According to her gallery, it “reimagines language as a universal visual system, transcending conventional meaning to create a new form of communication.” Al-Homoud created this ‘language’ by “deconstructing the letters of the Arabic language by using mathematical squares to compose new codes for each letter. With these codes, I inscribe the 99 names of God,” she has written. “The first step towards enlightenment is to search for the inner. It is this inner truth that leads to the light of knowledge. My art is concerned with the inner veracity of everything. It is a deep look at creation and its hidden rules that led me to the truth of existence…”
Ahmed Mater
‘Hulm’ (Dream)
In his 2011 work “Cowboy Code II,” Ahmed Mater used plastic gun powder caps glued onto a wooden board to spell out, in English, the various ‘rules’ he had imagined. In this more recent work, Mater uses the same technique to present the Arabic word hulm, which translates to ‘dream.’ Whether that’s an instruction, a comment on what visitors to Riyadh can experience, or an explanation of his inspiration for the piece is unclear, but it’s one of a number of similar works the 45-year-old Tabuk native — arguably the most influential Saudi contemporary artist — will be presenting at AWR (others include “Hurriya” (Freedom) and “Salam” (Peace)).
Manal AlDowayan
‘Totem 1 (Dearest Women)’
The prolific Dhahran-born artist represented the Kingdom at the Venice Biennale last year (with “Shifting Sands: A Battle Song) and, unsurprisingly, is participating in perhaps the most significant arts event yet to take place in the Kingdom. Among several of her works on display at AWR is this piece from 2018, which AlDowayan has described as “an attempt at creating a permanent memorial of a fragmented moment.”
She continued: “I look at the symbols used on the covers of books written by the religious men to address women and their bodies. I attempt to reform the symbols into new representations so that the invisible becomes visible.” The work is not, she stressed, “an attempt to critique or analyze history, but more of a totem of healing to help resolve the past in order to engage with the present, and time in general.”
Bashaer Hawsawi
‘Warm Space 1’
Much of the Jeddah-based visual artist’s practice revolves around found objects and mixed media, exploring, according to theartists.net “notions of cultural identity, cleansing, belonging and nostalgia.” Cleansing is the focus of this piece, which — like several other works by Hawsawi — uses the red-bristled broom heads familiar to anyone living in the Gulf and indicative of the remembered daily routines from which Hawsawi draws inspiration for much of her work. Cleansing also carries a spiritual symbolism — the purification of the self — that features regularly in Hawsawi’s work.
‘Theater Tour’ initiative celebrates local culture across Saudi Arabia
- Award-winning play ‘Bahr’ debuts in Baha, with performances in Jubail, Dammam, Al-Ahsa to follow
- New project boosts local theater, community engagement and cultural awareness nationwide
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Theater and Performing Arts Commission launched the “Theater Tour” initiative on Thursday to bring exceptional theatrical performances to cities, governorates and villages across the Kingdom.
The project aims to promote the cultural and performing arts scene while encouraging community engagement, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The first phase begins with the play “Bahr” (Sea), running from April 3 to May 3, the SPA added.
The production will debut in Baha from April 3-5 at the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Theater in the Cultural Center, before moving to Jubail from April 17-19 at the Royal Commission’s Conference Hall in Al-Fanateer.
It will then continue in Dammam from April 24-26 at the Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University Theater, and conclude in Al-Ahsa from May 1-3 at the Society for Culture and Arts’ Theater.
The project is part of the commission’s broader efforts to raise awareness of the theater and performing arts sector, while ensuring that cultural services are accessible in underserved areas and to marginalized communities, according to the SPA.
It also aims to support local theater groups, boost theatrical production and strengthen the cultural sector’s contribution to the national gross domestic product.
Additionally, the initiative fosters investment opportunities and serves as a platform for discovering and nurturing emerging talent, the SPA reported.
The play “Bahr,” written by Abdulrahman Al-Marikhi and directed by Sultan Al-Nawa, has received critical acclaim, winning several prestigious awards, including for best actor, best script, and best overall production at the inaugural Riyadh Theater Festival, as well as best musical effects and best director at the 19th Gulf Theater Festival.
