Azriel Clary has been talking out about her escape from R. Kelly. Clary dated Kelly from the time she was 17 to 22. After their breakup, Clary testified towards Kelly at his New York Trial. She spoke with Gayle King for a follow-up interview, after Clary and Joycelyn Savage defended Kelly in a 2019 interview with King. This time, Clary credit the individuals in her life who supported her.
The complete interview is now streaming on Paramount+. Whereas discussing her life after Kelly, Clary mentioned her dad and mom and brothers supported her as she readjusted to life along with her household.
Azriel Clary mentioned issues have been tense along with her household after R. Kelly
Clary criticized her dad and mom in her 2019 interview with King. Now, she recants and alleges Kelly tried to separate her from her household. Clary additionally advised King Kelly forbade some other males to speak to her, or her to reciprocate.
“Even coming back home to my parents, I couldn’t look my dad in his eyes,” Clary mentioned. “I couldn’t look my brother in his eyes. I was scared to hug them, I was scared to touch them. And so I feel like that was the hardest part for me and them.”
Azriel Clary mentioned she couldn’t have left R. Kelly with out that assist
Clary advised King their 2019 interview was a wakeup name to her that she was shedding herself in her relationship with Kelly. She added {that a} later encounter with Savage additionally gave her pause. However, Clary mentioned understanding she had a supportive household to return to empowered her to depart.
“However, they were so supportive,” Clary mentioned. “They never gave up, they never did. And I appreciate that because most people when they get out of something traumatizing, they don’t have anybody to go back to. They don’t have a support system to go back to. I’m so thankful that I had that because I needed that more than anything in life. If you are leaving something traumatizing, more than you want to breathe, you need support. You need foundation that feels love and loves you.”
King requested Clary if there was something somebody might have finished to get by way of to her sooner. Clary acknowledged that it needed to come from inside.
“Nothing,” Clary mentioned. “I feel like that is something that I would’ve had to have woken up from myself, something that I would’ve had to realize on myself. A lot of people don’t realize with victims, the more you try to help them, the more it upsets them sometimes because this is all they know. This is the only person they have been comfortable around. So the more you try to separate that, the more they only run to what they know.”
Azriel Clary in the present day
Clary advised King she is engaged on her personal music once more, and launching a skincare product. As for therapeutic from her relationship with Kelly, Clary mentioned she takes that daily.
“I feel like everything is always going to be a work in progress. No matter how old you are, no matter how older you get, life always has lessons it can teach you. I don’t feel like I’m above any teaching or any lesson. So I feel like that would be naive of me to sit here and say that I’m whole. However, what I will say is that mentally I am healed. I will be able to sit here and say mentally I can say no and walk away from a situation like that again if it was to present itself. However, I would never put myself in that position but mentally I’m really heeled. I have a lot of self love, I do a lot of self care.”
Clary additionally mentioned she takes duty for herself and previous choices.
“I think it’s very important,” Clary mentioned. “Even I have to take accountability for my actions. It’s okay to re-evaluate your life. It is okay to change your mind. You are never too old to wake up and say, ‘Hey, I thought this was good for me but it’s actually not.’”
CBS says attorneys for Kelly didn’t reply to requests for remark.