'Surviving R. Kelly II: The Reckoning' Trailer Reveals Shocking New Allegations
The trailer for Lifetime's Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning was released on Wednesday, and the highly anticipated follow-up to the network's Surviving R. Kelly docuseries appears to be every bit as explosive.
Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning features interviews with new women who claim they were abused by singer R. Kelly, as well as supporters, psychologists and cultural and legal experts. According to a press release, the documentary will uncover "new stories with revealing details" and will also explore why the voices of the girls that spoke up decades ago are only now being heard.
One shocking allegation in the trailer includes one woman claiming that she had a suicide pact with Kelly.
"I was a part of the suicide pact," she claims. "If he was to go to jail, I was supposed to kill myself."
Kelly, 52, has been accused of multiple sexual abuse allegations and inappropriate encounters with girls and young women over the years, but a renewed attention to the allegations came with the release of Surviving R. Kelly in January, in which multiple women came forward with allegations of abuse against Kelly. He has repeatedly denied all the accusations against him.
Kelly is currently in jail after he was arrested in Chicago in July on federal sex crime charges -- which he pleaded not guilty to -- and since then has been hit with various new charges. Earlier this month, it was announced that he's facing another new criminal charge for allegedly bribing a public official in 1994 in order to obtain a fake I.D. for his 15-year-old girlfriend, the late singer Aaliyah, which would enable the two to wed. Kelly and Aaliyah long denied that they had ever gotten married. However, their illegitimate marriage was legally annulled by a judge in Michigan at the request of Aaliyah's parents in February 1995. Aaliyah later tragically died in a plane crash in August 2001 at the age of 22.
Aaliyah's boyfriend at the time of her death, Damon Dash, is actually featured in Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning's new trailer and comments on Kelly.
"Whoever's acting like they didn't know is lying," Dash says.
The two-hour premiere of Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning airs on Jan. 2 on Lifetime at 9 p.m.ET/PT.
In April, ET spoke with Surviving R. Kelly producer, dream hampton, at the Time 100 Gala, and she talked about the enormous impact that the docuseries has had.
"I can't say I anticipated the kind of impact that it would have," she said. "I think I understood the first night that this is going to be imperative, that we're going to have conversations about this for months and months and that's all I could have dreamed of, to open up the conversation about sexual violence in the black community."
In June, ET spoke with three of Kelly's alleged victims -- Asante McGee, Lisa Van Allen and Lizzette Martinez -- at the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards, where they also spoke about the impact the series has had.
"It's been liberating to know how many people we've touched and how many victims have come forward because of the docuseries and just knowing that justice will soon be served," McGee said. "I just want all of his victims to continue coming forward, do not be silent. And, for me, it's not just about R. Kelly. It's about victims that are being victimized by everyday people. So I just want everybody to be able to come forward and I just want to be the voice for the voices."
"When we sat down, we didn't think any of this would happen," Van Allen added. "We just really prayed and hoped that our voices would be heard and that the industry and the world would listen up."
"For us to finally be recognized and be taken seriously and for people to listen, it's a great thing," Martinez agreed. "I just want him to be held accountable."
Watch the video below for more:
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