R. Kelly Legal Fight against his Sex Cult Portrayal Uncertain

After an explosive 6 part documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly” aired on Lifetime this past weekend it is uncertain if R. Kelly’s legal fight will be successful.

The documentary aired in spite of Kelly’s lawyer, Brian Nix, fired off a cease and desist letter — according TMZ — warning the network that its “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary is packed with lies claiming his client is “sex crazed” and a “sex cult leader” that mentally, physically and emotionally abuses women. Nix also threatened to file a federal lawsuit Thursday.  However, it appears for now nothing has been filed.

A defamatory statement is a false statement of fact that causes injury or damage to someone.

Kelly will most likely claim defamation per se (where he does not have to prove any damages- although his financial loss to record and concert sales is proof enough).  Kelly can claim Defamation per se in three ways:

  • Kelly was involved in criminal activity (assault, kidnapping, rape)
  • Indications that a person had a “loathsome,” contagious or infectious disease (film claimed he had Herpes and spread to his victims)
  • Indications that a person was unchaste or engaged in sexual misconduct (rape, sex cult etc., sex with minors)

The central issue with Kelly being successful in a Defamation suit (and perhaps intentional infliction of emotional distress) is that the Defendants (the Lifetime Network) can easily assert two defenses to Kelly’s Defamation claims:

  • Truth (Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Remember that defamation is a false statement of fact. So, if the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory).
  • Statement of opinion (Defamation is a false statement of fact. For this reason, a statement of opinion cannot be defamatory).

Kelly alleges that he has 2 audio recordings to prove Lifetime knew that some of those interviewed for documentary were lying. Stay tuned as this story develops!

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