Chicago Police Question R. Kelly After Receiving Tip That He’s Holding Women Hostage In His Apartment

Amid growing calls for action, authorities have reportedly interviewed R. Kelly in response to claims that he'd been holding two women hostage in his apartment.

Kelly, 51, has been at the receiving end of furious backlash after Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary brought new attention to the decades of accusations against him.

Kelly, who was charged with producing child pornography in 2002 but was acquitted in 2008, has long been accused of preying on underage girls and keeping multiple women under his control in a "sex cult." Authorities in Georgia launched a criminal investigation into Kelly last week, and although prosecutors in Chicago seem ready and willing to do the same, police reportedly visited Kelly’s home on Friday to investigate a claim that Kelly had been holding two women hostage and found nothing out of the ordinary.

Chicago police paid a visit to Kelly’s home at around 10 a.m. on Friday after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office received the tip suggesting that two women were being held against their will in the apartment, NBC Chicago reports. Police spoke with Kelly as well as the two women who were in the home at the time, and during separate interviews, both women reported that they were not being held their against their will, leading police to conclude that the call was “unfounded,” a police spokesperson told the outlet.

Both women were in good health and spirits, the police spokesperson said.

The two women at Kelly’s home have been identified as Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary, Newsweek reports. Both women and their relationship with Kelly were discussed heavily in the Lifetime documentary, with their families claiming that Kelly groomed them from a young age and brainwashed them into following him. Clary’s father, Angelo Clary, has suggested that authorities in Florida should investigate the accusations surrounding Kelly.

The disgraced singer — who is facing considerable backlash from his musical peers and former collaborators — has denied all wrongdoing through his attorney, Steve Greenberg, who told the Associated Press on Friday that the allegations against his client are false.

“The allegations aren’t true because he never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone,” he said.

Greenberg told ABC News that police aren’t going to find any victims because “it just didn’t happen.”

He continued, “The man was not operating a harem or a sex cult or holding people hostage or anything like that.”

[Photo: Getty Images]