Why Is R Kelly's Brother Bruce In Jail? Documentary On Singer Airs

Bruce and Carey Kelly, brothers of 52-year-old disgraced singer Robert Sylvester Kelly — better known as R. Kelly — opened up in an interview about the sexual assault R. Kelly had been inflicting on women for several years. The interviews were featured in “Surviving R. Kelly”, a special three-night docu-series that premiered Thursday on Lifetime.

Bruce is Robert’s older brother, while Carey is younger. They also have a sister named Theresa, and all of them were raised by their single mother Joanne. Both brothers recounted their childhood memories of the controversial singer in the interviews.

A lot of viewers seemed to be interested in Bruce, who was himself in prison at the time of the interview, and made a controversial comment seemingly in defense of R. Kelly, who was found guilty of having sex with underage girls.

“You have people who have fantasies about different things,” Bruce said. “I like older women, go figure, you know. But that’s just a preference. Everyone has preferences. So what is the big deal? What is the big issue with my brother?”

Bruce was in prison on charges of “burglary, probation violation and outstanding arrest warrant,” Robert Littal of blacksportsonline.com wrote on Twitter. He told International Business Times he got this information directly from Chicago’s Cook County jail, where Bruce was incarcerated.

Several Twitter users slammed Bruce for his views, with many calling him “sick.”

Many called him out for calling having sex with underage girls a “preference.”

On the other hand, Carey attributed R. Kelly’s sexual predatory behavior to the singer being sexually assaulted during his own childhood.

“It teaches you to definitely be sexual earlier than you should have, than you’re supposed to,” Carey said. “You know, no different than putting a loaded gun in a kid’s hand — he gonna grow up being a shooter, probably. I think it affects you tremendously when that happens at an early age. To be more hornier. Your hormones are up more than they would normally be. Mine was.”

Carey confessed he was also molested as a child and reported the incident to R. Kelly, but did not get support from his elder brother.

“I was molested by a family member and that shook my world,” Carey said. “Robert, being my big brother — I brought that to him and told him what happened to me. And when I told him he didn’t really respond to it like I thought he should. He said, ‘Naw, that didn’t happen to you.’ I said, ‘Yes it did.’ He said, ‘No it didn’t.’ I left it at that.”