R&B singer R Kelly has revealed he was sexually abused by a female family member when he was a child.
The I Believe I Can Fly star kept the alleged abuse hidden opening up about it in his 2012 memoir, Soulacoaster, and now he is revealing more about the incidents that occurred when he was between the ages of seven and 15.
"(It was something I) put so far in the back of my mind that I even forgot about it," he tells GQ magazine in a candid new expose. "As I got older, the more I just didn't want it to be in my past the more I became successful. I didn't want that to be something that was in my luggage once I got to my success home, so to speak."
The 49-year-old goes on to reveal that a trusted family friend showed him his penis when he was a child and tried to get him to masturbate for money. Kelly refused. A female relative also abused him by forcing him to perform oral sex and then having intercourse with her.
"At first, I couldn't judge it," he says. "I remember it feeling weird. I remember feeling ashamed. I remember closing my eyes or keeping my hands over my eyes. I remember those things, but couldn't judge it one way or the other fully."