A day after filing a lawsuit claiming that R. Kelly “willfully, deliberately and maliciously” infected her with herpes and “mentally, physically and verbally” abused her when she was 19, Faith Rodgers sat down with “CBS This Morning” to detail her accusations against the singer.
In the interview that aired Tuesday, Rodgers said she was in a relationship with Kelly for close to a year, during which he asked her to call him “daddy,” said he wanted to teach her to have sex like a “mature woman,” and introduced her to one of five women he claimed to be “raising.”
She described to CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan an incident in which she said Kelly flew her to New York to attend one of his shows and then visited her hotel room, where she said she “submitted” to having sex with him.
“I didn’t really say anything,” Rodgers said. “I kinda just froze up. I definitely was uncomfortable. But he has this type of, like, intimidation right off the bat. You know? So I was just waiting for it to be over.”
“He comes over and he starts, like, rubbing the side of my face,” Rodgers added. “And he asked me how old I was. And I told him… And he’s like, ‘You know, if you’re really, you know, 16, that you can tell daddy, right?’… And he was like, ‘You know, you just look about 14, 15, or 16.’”
“Did you find yourself in a position like that more than once with R. Kelly?” Duncan asked Rodgers.
“Yes. I found myself like that multiple times,” Rodgers replied.
Spotify and Apple recently removed R. Kelly from its playlists following several accusations of sexual misconduct against him.
Kelly’s attorney, assistant, and public relations representative all ditched the singer last month after a new documentary accused him of running a “sex dungeon” that exploited underage girls. In the aftermath, Kelly said he was a “God-fearing man” who was being unfairly skewered by the media in an attempt to “destroy” his legacy.
Kelly was acquitted on child pornography charges in 2008, but sexual misconduct accusations have continued to surface. A BuzzFeed report last year painted Kelly as the leader of a “cult,” with the singer controlling every detail in the lives of several women living on his properties.
Pressure has been growing on Kelly in recent weeks, with the Time’s Up movement pushing a #MuteRKelly hashtag to “insist on safety and dignity for women of all kinds.”
A representative for Kelly did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on Rodgers’ interview.
Watch a clip from the interview above.