Despite writing hundreds of songs for other artists and having a lengthy successful music catalog of his own, disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly is allegedly broke. Celebrity Net Worth recently updated Kelly’s page which lists assets at a negative $2 million. His net worth, or lack thereof, is a huge trending topic on social media right now.
42 Dugg posted a video showing himself laughing at Kelly’s misfortune. Others followed suit. The ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ singer is currently in the middle of one of several criminal cases in which he and his team are trying to defend allegations of sex trafficking and sexual abuse. He is currently awaiting a verdict in his Brooklyn criminal trial.
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TMZ reports that Celebrity Net Worth came up with the figure from Kelly’s own court appearances. The singer told a judge that he owed the IRS almost $2 million. At the time, he was asking to be released from an Illinois prison on supervised watch and cited the IRS debt as a reason why he wouldn’t be a flight risk. A judge denied his request.
The media outlet reached out to Kelly’s legal team to see if they’re working on his case on a pro bono basis, or whether Kelly is paying for their services. TMZ says his legal team has yet to respond.
Kelly has been open about his financial struggles in the past. During a 2019 interview with CBS This Morning’s Gayle King, he claimed the first time he’d ever been to the bank on his own was at the age of 53. His trip to the bank came after he learned he had just $350k in his account.
The bank story was Kelly’s way of trying to explain why he couldn’t pay his $100k from his arrest and owing his ex-wife nearly $200k in child support at the time. Kelly says he’s been taken advantage of. “So many people have been stealing my money,” he told King. “People was connected to my account. I went by myself for the first time to a Bank of America. Didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know what was going on … three weeks ago to a month. Because I was so tired of not knowing where my money was, where my publishing was.”
