Patreon removes account of person claiming to be Joycelyn Savage due to "potential impersonation"
Patreon on Tuesday removed the account of a person claiming to be R. Kelly's live-in girlfriend Joycelyn Savage. The subscription-based platform, which allows users to charge members for access to their content, said they could not verify Savage was actually controlling the account.
"After multiple unsuccessful attempts to verify the identity of the account holder, we closed the Patreon page allegedly associated with Joycelyn Savage due to potential impersonation," Patreon told CBS Chicago. "All patrons who signed up for the membership page were refunded and the creator did not receive any funds."
Savage was one of the women living with R. Kelly at the time of his arrest. The person claiming to be Savage wrote in a series of posts on Patreon that she was "a victim" and accused Kelly of various forms of physical and emotional abuse. The accusations appeared to be a reversal of Savage's initial defense of Kelly during an interview with CBS News' Gayle King.
Patreon began investigating the account on Saturday, Rolling Stone reports. It reached the owner of the account by email, according to Rolling Stone, but that person failed to prove they were indeed Savage, prompting Patreon to delete the account.
The Patreon posts were initially promoted on an Instagram account that also allegedly belongs to Savage. The account is unverified and had been dormant for over two years until it began posting on Friday about the Patreon account.
"I am risking my life for many others," the person behind the Instagram account claimed.
