Gayle King, the host of the “CBS This Morning,” interviewed singer Robert Kelly on his sexual abuse allegations for the first time since his arrest last month in Chicago.

R. Kelly was charged and arrested on 10 counts of sexual abuse. He was released last week after a woman posted a $100,000 bond. After the controversial Lifetime, Surviving R. Kelly docuseries aired, decades of R. Kelly’s sexual abuse of Black women and girls were brought back into the national spotlight.

When Gayle King asked R. Kelly if had committed any wrongs, R. Kelly responded, “Lots of things wrong when it comes to women, that I apologize. But I apologized in those relationships at the time I was in the relationships.”

An emotional R. Kelly also said, “Hate me if you want to, love me if you want. But just use your common sense. How stupid would it be for me, with my crazy past and what I’ve been through — oh, right now I just think I need to be a monster, hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement, and don’t let them eat, don’t let them out!”

In the middle, R. Kelly jumped out of his seat, yelling, “I’m fighting for my life!”

The New York Times reports Jerhonda Pace, one of the minors R.Kelly was charged with sexually abusing, wrote on Facebook and Twitter, “For decades he’s been around enablers who never told him the truth. Him believing he’s doing no wrong is no different than an adult telling a child Santa is real.”

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