Gayle King Says R. Kelly Spat on Her During Infamous Interview

Gayle King sat down for an interview with disgraced Chicago singer R. Kelly earlier this year, discussing the sexual abuse allegations leveled against him. Kelly infamously broke down during the interview, but King never lost her composure. “I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my fucking life,” he yelled.

Months removed from the ordeal, King has appeared on Desus & Mero and revealed that Kelly inadvertently spat on her during his tirade.

“No one has done that to me,” King said about Kelly’s outburst (at the 3:20 mark). “I never thought that he was gonna hurt me. But when he was [punching his hand in his fist], I thought he was going to accidentally hurt me. I was worried about that. You could tell he could hit hard. But he was spitting, it was flying all over the place, and his spit fell on my lip right here. I just sat there thinking, ‘I don’t wanna move.’ If somebody does that to you, you can gracefully [wipe your lip], but I knew I didn’t want to make any sudden movements because he was very amped up.” 

“I really feel like we were watching him have a breakdown in real-time,” she added. “If that had happened to me when I was younger, I think I would have been very afraid. But I really wasn’t, because I didn’t think he wanted to hurt me.”

R. Kelly was arrested in July on federal sex crime charges and has remained behind bars since.