In the latest episode of her talk series “Red Table Talk,” Jada Pinkett Smith chose to take on the fall out from “Surviving R. Kelly,” a series she said she made a point of watching with her daughter, Willow Smith.
Smith acknowledged culpability within her own family by pointing out her husband, Will Smith, used Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” as the backing track for a September 2018 bungee jump video.
The episode includes a visit by R. Kelly accuser Lisa Van Allen who shares details of her four-year relationship with Kelly. Van Allen was 17 in 1998 when she met Kelly, who was 31 at the time. Two years into their relationship, Kelly pushed her to take part in threesomes with a girl she would later discover was 14. Kelly recorded all three of their encounters on video, one of which Van Allen stole. In 2002, the tape was mailed anonymously to Chicago Sun-Times pop music critic Jim Derogatisto. The tape led to Kelly being tried in 2008 and ultimately acquitted.
“I came out in 2008 and nobody heard me,” Van Allen told Pinkett and added, “It’s awesome to be heard now.”
Van Allen was in foster care until she was six and was then adopted by a single mother, information Kelly used to manipulate her. She said as she got older and Kelly continued to pursue teenagers, she realized he didn’t want to and wasn’t going to change. She added she had a daughter by a different father and began to be concerned about having her around Kelly.
Van Allen said Kelly spoke in detail to her about his relationship with Aaliyah, “the dirty dirt,” a confession she said made her feel special. Chillingly, Kelly described their pact as “pins and eyeballs,” meaning you don’t discuss “what we do” even if they put pins in your eyeballs. She added, “He said he had that pact with Aaliyah, and she didn’t talk.”
In the next episode, Van Allen’s daughter will join the program.
Check out the exchange below.
