R. Kelly Allegedly Once Compared Himself To Jerry Lee Lewis, Who Married Teen Cousin In 1950s

One of R. Kelly’s many accusers testified in court this week that the singer once compared himself to Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock singer who married his 13-year-old cousin decades ago.

The witness, the third woman to take the stand to accuse the “Ignition” singer of sexual abuse, testified on Thursday that Kelly began exploiting her sexually in 1999 when she was a 17-year-old hotel worker, according to the Associated Press.

The now-39-year-old woman, who testified in court as “Stephanie,” claimed in Brooklyn federal court that Kelly proclaimed how much he liked young girls and likened himself to the “Great Balls of Fire” singer during a dinner. 

“Even look at Jerry Lee Lewis,” she alleged Kelly told her that evening. “He’s a genius and I’m a genius. We should be allowed to do whatever we want. Look at what we give to the world.”

While Lewis was credited with helping to create the rock ‘n’ roll genre, his 1957 marriage to his 13-year-old second cousin Myra Gale Brown caused an uproar.

The hip hop duo Boo & Gotti were also at that dinner but Stephanie said she was not allowed to talk to them, according to the Daily Beast. 

“I wasn’t meant to speak to any men except for Mr. Kelly,” Stephanie testified.

Kelly’s allegedly controlling behavior was the focus of the sex trafficking this week.

Another woman testified on Wednesday that the singer made her and others write blackmail letters in the event that he was ever accused of sexually abusing them. Yet another woman testified earlier this week that Kelly also groomed a boy nicknamed “Nephew” and that Kelly forced her to have sex with “Nephew” when he was an adult as a form of punishment for her.

Prosecutors say Kelly abused women and girls for nearly two decades and that he led a criminal enterprise involving managers, bodyguards and other employees who recruited women and girls for sex.  

Kelly has long denied the allegations and his defense has described his accusers as groupies who only started accusing him of abuse following the #MeToo movement.

However, Kelly has been plagued with accusations for decades about his sexual behavior. He was accused of producing child pornography in Chicago in 2002, but was acquitted of the charge in 2008.

In Brooklyn, he faces more than a dozen criminal counts of sex trafficking, racketeering, coercion, and other charges in connection with the abuse of women and girls. He is also accused of producing child pornography and destroying evidence in a separate case in Illinois. 

Last week, Kelly’s former tour manager Demetrius Smith testified that he paid a $500 bribe to a Chicago public assistance worker to create a fake ID for the now-deceased singer Aaliyah so she could marry Kelly when she was 15 and he was 27.