Joycelyn Savage denies claims made on Patreon account alleging abuse by R. Kelly
Joycelyn Savage, one of the women who was living with R. Kelly at the time of his arrest, has claimed that an impostor was behind an Instagram account that promoted a Patreon page purportedly belonging to her. Savage, in a video obtained by TMZ, also denied claims made on the Patreon page that she now considers herself a "victim."
"That is not my Instagram," Savage said while reading from a prepared statement. "Someone is impersonating me."
"It's just really, really, really sad that somebody would pretend to be me...and say that I'm a victim, that I am brainwashed, that I'm a sex slave...that I have Stockholm Syndrome," Savage said later in the video, no longer reading from the prepared statement.
Savage's claims come just over a week after the subscription-based publishing platform Patreon removed an account made by someone claiming to be Savage. In a series of posts, the person claiming to be Savage alleged that Kelly abused her both mentally and physically, and stated she was a "victim." The Patreon account was promoted by an unverified Instagram account that also appeared to be run by Savage, but had been dormant for over two years.
"Attorney Nicole Blank Becker, one of Mr. R. Kelly's lawyers, confirms that the person/s who orchestrated the Patreon Platform, for financial gain, was NOT in fact Mr. R. Kelly's girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage," Kelly's lawyer said in a statement.
"Now that we know that Joycelyn Savage was NOT the person behind the stories, we know that stories told were complete fabrications," the statement continued.
Savage's family also released a statement through their lawyer, in which they said they are "saddened and disappointed to learn that Joycelyn Savage has said that she was not the person operating the Patreon account."
"We deeply desired to hear her story and in her own voice outside of the presence of Robert Sylvester Kelly or anyone associated with him," the family statement said. "For nearly three years, Joycelyn Savage has not been able to speak outside of a controlled environment created by Mr. Kelly. Her video today was not any different."