Following up on 2019's bombshell series, Lifetime returned to air night one of Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning on Thursday (Jan. 2).
The two-hour premiere rehashed R. Kelly's history of pedophilia, as more survivors, ex-team members, record label employees, enablers, and family members came forward to speak out. Radio personality Angela Yee and Dame Dash, who dated Aaliyah at the time of her death, also provided commentary on the embattled singer.
Episodes three and four examine the ramifications of Surviving R. Kelly that helped lead to Kelly's February arrest on an array of egregious federal sexual abuse charges in Illinois. Survivor Jerhonda Pace also explains the details behind the nauseating suicide pact she made with Kelly.
Anybody needing help with issues of such abuse is prompted to call The National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE to speak with someone and receive proper treatment.
Check out our top six takeaways from night two of The Reckoning below.
R. Kelly allegedly raped his hairdresser
Lanita Carter was R. Kelly's hair braider in the early 2000s when she was just a 24-year-old mother of three. Carter says she would be paid $100 every time she came to his house, which could be every two days and she'd have to show up at any hour of the day or night. Kelly and Carter confided in one another that they were both molested as young children. Carter states that one day the R&B singer forced her to perform fellatio on him, as he ejaculated across her face. She took the matter into her own hands and filed a police report. Even with evidence supporting her claims, she would settle the civil lawsuit out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Survivor Jerhonda Pace details her suicide pact with R. Kelly
Pace originally met Kelly outside the courthouse during his 2008 trial facing child pornography charges when she was just 15. A self-described superfan, Pace would cut high school class to cheer Kelly on at the courthouse. Six months following the trial, she began having sexual relations with him while living at his home. Pace tearfully reveals a suicide pact that she had with Kelly, which basically said she would have to kill herself if anything ever happened to the "Ignition" singer. "He told me that if I was everything to him, like, that I say he is, there would be no life worth living," Pace somberly states. "When I was with him, I was really ready to take my own life, because Rob, he was everything to me. Rob was my life."
Survivor Dominique Gardner speaks out for the first time since escaping from Kelly's captivity
Dominique Gardner was prominently featured in the original Surviving R. Kelly, as cameras captured her mother reuniting with her in Beverly Hills, Calif., back in May of 2018. Even after her initial rescuing, she returned to Kelly's captivity because she didn't want to ditch fellow survivor Joycelyn Savage, but she eventually left Rob's house of horrors for good and returned home in 2019. Gardner agreed to speak out about her abusive and controlling experiences with Kelly on the record in September of last year. "I still had that thought process of following his rules," she says even after leaving him. "It was a scared feeling like."
R. Kelly would punish his girlfriends by starving them or not letting them drink water for more than a week
A former employee of Kelly's says the singer would keep Gardner "on punishment" because she was too talkative around other guys. Gardner explains that Kelly would beat her so bad for disrespecting him that her hair was damaged to the point it would fall out whenever she tried to brush it, which forced her to keep a short haircut. She says she went a week-and-a-half in a room by herself without food and water for disobeying him at one point. "It felt lonely, sad — it was like I didn't want to live anymore," Gardner reflects. "It was dark."
A former employee says R. Kelly was also sexually involved with boys
The former employee also went on to explain that he was unaware of R. Kelly being romantically involved with boys until he heard it from other girlfriends that Kelly would include a boy in sexual acts with them. When Gardner was asked about Kelly's preference to have her look to resemble that of a boy, she hesitantly preferred not to expand on the thought. "I was not aware of Robert having attractions to boys until a couple of the girls in the house started to talk about there being a guy that he was involved with who would sometimes come into the bedroom with them," says the former member of Kelly's camp.
Kelly made his girlfriends sign documents saying they were abused by family members
Halle Calhoun dated Kelly starting when she was 20 for three-and-a-half years and lived with him during that time period. At some point in the relationship, Calhoun says that her mother wanted to visit her at Kelly's home. With parents of his other girlfriends beginning to speak out against him, Kelly made Calhoun's mother sign false documents saying she was attempting to blackmail Kelly and even made her strip down to a towel in his house sauna to ensure she wasn't wearing a wire or any recording devices in his home.
Pace also recalls Kelly making her sign a letter with false claims. Gardner's mother says her daughter signed a letter saying Dominique was abused by her mother and wanted to flee a broken home, which she strongly denies. Survivor Asante McGee describes a situation in the same vein, where she was forced to send a false text making Kelly look like the good guy in their conflicts to get back into his life.
